BOYS’ LACROSSE: Wissahickon battles past Abington

LOWER GWYNEDD — The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Losing a senior core that led the team to the state quarterfinals a year ago, having a new coach take over, and starting seven underclassmen hasn’t seemed to slow down the Wissahickon Trojans.

In a gritty, SOL American matchup that saw two-dozen combined penalty flags on the turf, Wissahickon charged past the Abington Ghosts 9-5 at home on Thursday afternoon.

“It’s always been a rivalry with Abington and Wiss,” said Trojans senior Daniel Hussa, who won 11 of 15 faceoffs, had 14 ground balls and a pair of goals, and helped cause eight turnovers. “It’s fun to get the win. Some of the calls weren’t going our way, but we got through it.”

“We tightened up our defense man-up, scored more, and just overall played good lacrosse,” Hussa said. “With faceoffs, I let them get the clamp, then I go at them. We won more than we lost. We kept the ball pretty good, but had a couple turnovers. Overall, it was a good game.”

It was an impressive effort all around for Wissahickon (10-2, 6-1 SOL), which stretched a 2-1 lead to 4-2 by halftime and 7-3 by the end of the third period. Chase Comer and Charlie Stehlik had scored three goals apiece, with Comer adding an assist and four ground balls. Charlie Stehlik had an assist and three ground balls. Austin Myers finished with a goal, four assists and two ground balls.

“This game meant a lot to us,” Stehlik said. “We were undefeated in the Suburban One League  up until Tuesday. We lost a big game to Plymouth-Whitemarsh in overtime. So coming back and beating Abington, it felt good. It felt amazing. It was a huge game.

“Our coach always says, you learn from a loss, you learn from your mistakes,” he said. “So we learned and came back, and today we got the victory.

“There were a lot of penalties,” Stehlik said. “We try to stay away from that, but sometimes they don’t fall as you’d like. That’s the game of lacrosse.”

Cole Lilienfeld had a goal and three ground balls. Quinn McClintic contributed an assist and four ground balls, Logan Bruno had seven ground balls and four caused turnovers, Charlie Hussa finished with three ground balls and one caused turnover. Carmen Schoppe had two ground balls.

“That golden group went through Wissahickon year, so a lot of focus was put on that, and you can see that our skills are really behind,” said Wissahickon coach David Sowers, an accomplished lacrosse man who took the helm after Matt Conway stepped aside following three conference championships and a PIAA Class 3A quarterfinal berth.

“We start five freshman and two sophomores, and our future is really bright. We just have to ramp up the intensity and not let them be afraid. Our four seniors are doing a good job and leading the younger guys. It’s one of those things where we just have to keep trying to get better.

“Hats off to Abington,” Sowers said. “They play hard. They have some good players over there that would start for our team in a second. And they’re physical.”

“I think our freshmen finally settled in, and it took us until maybe the second quarter for that to happen,” Sowers said. “The seniors were making plays in the beginning, and then our younger players kind of realized, ‘Hey, I can play with these guys.’ We’ve just been sloppy with the ball. But the kids are working hard.”

Matt Miller led a young Abington squad (4-11, 4-3) with three goals.

“Wissahickon has been really good in our league for a long time,” Abington coach Mike Duffy said. “They’re always really talented, they’re well-coached, and they play hard. Every time we come here, we try to bring our best game. We try to get the guys up and ready for that. … We try to match that intensity. And it’s a league game, so we want to be ready to play.

“They jumped on us,” Duffy said. “We fell asleep a little bit defensively, and they had a couple nice back doors against us and scored a couple goals. That’s something they do really well. They seem slowly move the ball around and lull the defense to sleep, and then before you know it, they’re cutting back-door.

“But our guys don’t have any quit in them,” he said. “They’re going to keep fighting. That’s how we tell them to play. Never give up, and just keep playing whistle-to-whistle.

“Seven of our 10 starters are underclassmen,” Duffy said. “A lot of them are still learning the game. … But they’ve picked it up well. They’re out there and they’ve got their sticks together.”

Wissahickon hosts another tough game against Upper Dublin on Saturday.

“We have a strong group of kids, a lot of upcoming freshmen,” Stehlik said. “Last year, we had a lot of seniors that graduated, and that was a big loss, but now this year’s group of seniors are stepping up as leaders.”

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Wissahickon 9, Abington 5

Abington         1          1          1          2          —        5Wissahickon   2          2          3          2          —        9

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Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc.