Downingtown East captures outright Ches-Mont crown; has bigger aspirations
UWCHLAN >> It was one of the most subtle, muted championship celebrations in Downingtown East athletic history.
With a workmanlike 13-4 victory on Tuesday against visiting Unionville, the Cougars clinched the outright Ches-Mont Boys’ Lacrosse Championship for the second consecutive season. Afterwards, the accomplishment was hardly a topic, and that’s because East (11-0, 15-2 overall) has some big-time postseason aspirations. And everybody understands that what the Cougars do in the district and state tournaments will ultimately define the 2023 campaign.
“We still have one more game to play and we’re interested in running-the-table like we did last season,” said East head coach Joe Horvath.
“We didn’t really talk about the implications of this game,” added senior attacker Jake Woodworth. “We already had a share of (the crown) after we beat Kennett. We are just focused on trying to remain undefeated in the Ches-Mont.”
The Cougars – number five in the District 1 3A Power Rankings heading in – will wrap up the regular season on Thursday at two-win Oxford.
“You have to convert early against (East) and make every possession meaningful,” said Longhorns’ head coach Steve Holmes.
“While they have a very strong defense, they are also awesome on ground balls too, disciplined on offense, and they are good on faceoffs. They are just all-around tough, and they aren’t going to give you anything.”
Unionville falls to 6-6 in the league. And at 9-8 overall, it is precariously close to missing out on a district tournament berth. Currently 26th in the power rankings, Unionville needs to finish the regular season in the top 24 to make the postseason. The finale is Thursday at home against archrival Kennett.
“Downingtown East is a tough get-right game,” Holmes pointed out. “The good news is that it doesn’t take anything to get up for Kennett. It’s a rivalry game. We just need to be prepared to play our best game.”
The Cougars have now won nine in a row, and afterwards Horvath talked about the difficulty keeping his team fully engaged and focused in the lead up to the playoffs.
“In my 26-year coaching career – I’ve coached wrestling, soccer and lacrosse – keeping a spring sport team alive through the end of the regular season and into the playoffs is extremely difficult,” he said.
East is doing a good job of it so far. On Tuesday the Cougars scored two goals in the opening 2:29 and never trailed. And when the Longhorns cut the margin to 4-2 late in the opening quarter, East went on to score the next nine goals to take a commanding 12-2 lead late in the third quarter.
By then, Horvath had already begun substituting freely on offense, trying to build more depth. The Cougars defense – which is allowing an average of 3.6 goals in the last six outings – is already a championship-caliber unit.
“We have some really good defenders backed up by a quality goalie (sophomore Brady Quinn),” Horvath said. “They are extremely disciplined and we have a lot of physical talent, but everything’s not perfect. We still have some road to cover.”
In all, the East offense got goals from eight different players, and nobody had more than Woodworth’s three. Senior Bo Horvath, sophomore Ben Petrillo and freshman Keegan Kroop each added two goals.
“It feels good to score (13), but in some of the games recently we’ve been trying to possess the ball as much as possible. And we have a great defense,” Woodworth said.
“For this game we stressed decent possessions and we talked about goal distribution today, and we got a lot of goals from a lot of people,” Joe Horvath added.
“(Our defense) gives us confidence and a sense of safety. We are doing a real nice job defensively, and we want to match that with offense. And today we did that.”
Unionville got single goals from Owen Quinlan, Kevin Carson, Chase Minter, Wyatt Kupsey, and two assists from Josiah Hoopman.
“It’s been a long time since we haven’t been in the (districts),” Holmes said. “Some of that is the luck of the analytics, because I do think we have a team that is worthy of being in the playoffs.
“No excuses – we’ve had opportunities to win and get in (to districts), but the most important thing is figuring out what we need to do to be the best version of ourselves. That’s the goal more than anything else.”
Downingtown East 13, Unionville 4
Unionville 2 0 1 1 — 4
Downingtown East 6 2 4 1 — 13
Unionville goals: Quinlan, Carson, Minter, Kupsey.
Downingtown East goals: Woodworth 3, Kropp 2, Horvath 2, Petrillo 2, Kolinsky, McMahon, Warnock, Shillingford.
Goalie saves: Mousaw (U) 7; Quinn (DE) 5; Milon (DE) 4.
