District 1 Class 3A Boys Lacrosse: Down a man, Radnor doesn’t miss a beat in semis romp

RADNOR — Henry Pierce got the word Wednesday to bring a different piece of equipment than usual to Radnor lacrosse practice.

For most of the season, the athletic junior has been a short-stick defensive midfielder. But with a leg injury ruling Michael Savadove out of Thursday’s District 1 Class 3A semifinal against Downingtown East, Pierce was the best fit to step into Radnor’s vaunted defense.

You’d have to look really hard — and be pretty nit-picky — to notice a change.

The Raptors collectively stepped up, scoring the final nine goals to coast into another district final with a 10-1 shellacking of the Cougars in a rematch of last year’s district final.

“(The coaches) told me, hey we need you to step up,” Pierce said. “I was ready to go. I was on the wall immediately with it (the stick), and I’m just excited to be out there, with a short-stick or a pole.”

Pierce has played with a pole before, filling in at long-stick middie at offseason tournaments.

He was a depth defender on last year’s state title team, though most of his JV minutes were as an SSDM.

He might have picked up a thing or two from watching his older brother, Grant, a Daily Times Player of the Year and North Carolina defenseman; at the least, he was using one of Grant’s stick shafts, Frankensteining his preferred short-stick head onto it. Being a close defender, though, required a practice-field learning curve.

The biggest thing Henry knew Thursday — and that the defensive leaders reinforced — was that no one was expecting him to be Savadove, an All-Delco as a sophomore and a Harvard commit. He needed only be a responsible cog in the six-man unit.

“I wasn’t worried for a second,” captain Luciano Chadha said of Pierce. “He’s a fantastic athlete: basketball player, soccer player. He kind of just does whatever you need him to do. I think he knew that he had to come ready, and you didn’t really have to tell him anything. His mindset was there.”

“I know my role,” Pierce said. “ … I’m not going to make the all-star checks he (Savadove) makes. But I’m going to keep my guy in front of me, not let him get past me, talk well with my teammates and get the groundballs when they’re there.”

That’s the beauty of Radnor’s defense, which can lose such an important piece and hardly do any better in such a big game.

Savadove, the coaches expect, could return for states.

Fifth-seeded East (18-3) got loose once, Luke Fiorillo curling on crease and burying a feed from Bryson Kolinsky with 1:26 left in the first quarter.

After that … nothing.

Nick DeCain made five stops, including a huge denial on Bo Horvath trying to go five-hole in the second quarter and a reflex denial of Fiorillo on a carbon copy of the goal in the third.

Chadha swallowed up Kolinsky, the Delaware commit and fulcrum of East’s attack. Pierce, Drew Knight and Pablo Strid did the job on East’s other dangermen, including a shutout of high-powered middie Horvath. Carter Mountain won seven of 11 draws to lessen the pressure.

Chadha was even involved in the most consequential offensive sequence of the game. He didn’t get an assist, like Strid did 58 seconds into the second half, the LSM hitting Cooper Mueller for a rocket of a counterattack goal.

But Chadha’s got his stick into a passing lane in the final minute of the first quarter, one of a half-dozen deflections of his on the day. DeCain spearheaded the clear to midfield, then found Tucker Graham to race in and bury a shot with 1 second left on the clock.

The goal put top-seeded Radnor (19-2) up 2-1 and moved the momentum inexorably into Radnor’s possession.

“It gets us all pumped up,” Radnor middie Max Goldstein said. “It’s awesome. It gets us going and kind of broke the ice for us.”

Radnor spread around the offense. Goldstein scored twice in a four-goal second quarter, all the markers coming within a 3:07 span. That included Owen Knight scoring on a rebound, drawing a flag and Goldstein scoring off a Kessy Cox feed 13 seconds later to make it 6-1.

Cox added a goal in the third. Mason Montrella had a goal and an assist, and Colin French scored twice.

East provided some resistance thanks to Brady Quinn, the junior goalie making 11 saves.

With Division I poles Mike Waite and Sam Barton, the Cougars gave Radnor a bit of matchup trouble. But more probing found the weak spots, and Radnor’s depth wore East down.

“We have a great defense ahead of me, and I made a few saves, which really helps,” Quinn said. “Our middies did a great job in that first half. We weren’t as tired as we were in the second half. We showed how good a team we are.”

Both teams have already earned their places in states. Radnor’s immediate goal, though, is to defend their District 1 title, won last year via a 14-3 romp over East. This year’s team is a much different group. And if they needed any further reminder that the fundamentals remain the same no matter who is in the game, Pierce provided it.

“You love to see a result like that,” Chadha said. “Downingtown East is a really good team. We had to prepare for them a lot, and it’s just nice to see we have some new guys stepping on the field and they play really, really well and we got the product we wanted.”