PIAA Class 2A Boys Lacrosse: Just in time, Ryan Gorman dodges down alley, ices Marple Newtown championship

STATE COLLEGE — The most meaningful team gathering in the history of Marple Newtown lacrosse came between the first and second quarters of the PIAA Class 2A championship game Saturday at Penn State.

It did not last long. The key message took even shorter.

Said Brian Box: “All we said was, ‘enough.'”

That was the memo after the Tigers had fallen five goals behind Mars after 12 minutes. And that was the attitude with which they would roll into an 11-10 victory that avenged a loss to the Fighting Planets in the 2022 championship game.

Aware they had time to recover from the 6-1 deficit, the Tigers eventually would even have two seconds to spare. That was how much time was left when senior Ryan Gorman – one eye on the Panzer Stadium clock, the other on the back of the net – maneuvered through multiple Martians and left-handed a goal to provide the Tigers with their only lead and the desired position in the medal ceremony.

“I knew we were short on time,” said Gorman, who had scored a  first-quarter goal. “So I got the ball and just took it to the cage. I knew there were about five seconds left and I started dodging. I went down the alley and I knew I had to take a shot.”

Sudden death overtime avoided two seconds later, the Tigers had improved to 20-5 with their first state lacrosse championship and just their second overall in school history. Marple Newtown won a baseball championship in 2018.

“We knew at halftime,” said Gorman, of the turning point. “We started putting in a lot of goals in the second quarter. So as soon as halftime hit, we knew: ‘We’ve got this.’ We just had to come out with the same energy in the second half.”

As for the Tigers’ energy at the top of the first half, that was barely existent. After one shot seconds into the game, Marple Newtown would be trailing, 4-0, before enjoying another possession. Three of the Mars goals were from junior Vincenzo Grieco, who would give Mars (22-3) a 5-0 lead with his fifth with 4:48 left in the first. Grieco, committed to play on that very Penn State field after next season, would not score again.

“We locked him a little bit,” said Marple Newtown coach Kevin Merchant, still dripping from a Gatorade-bucket treatment. “We challenged their other five guys to beat our five guys. And it worked out in our favor.”

The Fighting Planets had 12 first-quarter shots, but with Jake McGowan and Colin Wolk doing most of the fronting on Grieco, they managed just 11 more. And three of the fourth-quarter shots they did attempt were repelled by sophomore goalie Marco D’Alicandro, including one that kept the Tigers within a goal and in control for the final two minutes.

“The whole game, we were just trying to get some points back,” D’Alicandro said. “It was, ‘Never give up, never give up, no matter what happens.’ We had three quarters to go and I knew we were going to get something done. And we got it done.”

Gorman, Box, Ryan Keating and Jace Kostack each scored twice, with Robert Wagner, Joey Yukenavitch and Evan Kostak adding a goal apiece.

Alex Chambers was 16-for-24 in faceoffs, supplying the Tigers with repeated possessions. Yukenavitch had three assists. Box had two assists to help Marple Newtown win the fourth quarter, 3-0.

“We lost a lot of players from last year, but we just had the ‘next man up,’” Box said. “We lost in the final last season, but that was our mentality all year.”

That approach carried the Tigers into the final seconds Saturday when Evan Kostack worked behind the net to find Gorman available in front. From there, it was Marple Newtown history.

“We couldn’t give up on anything,” Gorman said. “We knew if we got our heads down it was over.”