It’s a return to tradition in the Pioneer Athletic Conference boys’ lacrosse championship game Thursday night when top-seeded Spring-Ford and No. 2 Owen J. Roberts meet at 7 p.m. at Perkiomen Valley.
The Rams and Wildcats have met in the league final on 12 occasions, the first 11 PAC title games dating back to 2007, plus the 2022 final.
Spring-Ford its chasing a PAC championship threepeat and its 13th title while Owen J. Roberts is seeking to earn its first PAC crown since 2010.
Breaking down the matchup:
Records: Spring-Ford: 8-1 PAC, 15-3 overall, No. 8 in District 1-3A rankings; Owen J. Roberts: 7-2 PAC, 11-6 overall, No. 13 in District 1-3A rankings.
Road to the final: In Tuesday night’s semifinals, Spring-Ford escaped upstart Upper Merion 9-8 in overtime after scoring two goals in the final 40 seconds for force OT before Hayden Wedemeyer’s heroics off a restart kept the Rams’ run of never missing the PAC final going … Owen J. Roberts turned a 7-7 halftime game into a rout against host Perkiomen Valley, winning 16-9.
Last Meeting: Owen J. Roberts bested Spring-Ford, 12-11, on the road at Coach McNelly Stadium on April 9.
Owen J. Roberts at a Glance: The Wildcats held the top spot in the PAC for the balance of the regular season after topping the Rams in April but fell to No. 2 on the final day of play with a loss to Boyertown.
No matter, however, as OJR avenged an earlier loss to Perkiomen Valley in Tuesday’s semifinals, 16-9, with what may well have been their best performance of the season. Attackman and leading scorer Gabe DellaPenna caught fire with seven points (five goals, two assists) while midfielder Nolan Brown deposited five tallies of his own.
It’s the first trip to the PAC title game for OJR since 2022, meaning the first time on the big stage for some Wildcats – but not DellaPenna, who was a midfielder on the squad that fell to Spring-Ford two years ago.
“Obviously, it’s a big game for us, but we can’t treat it differently than any other,” said DellaPenna. “We were able to beat them earlier, that’s big for our confidence, but now we need to do it again.”
For OJR, the key will be matching Spring-Ford’s versatility and depth in the midfield. The increasing role of junior Justin Daubert will be instrumental in OJR’s efforts.
Daubert has been taking faceoffs for the Wildcats since his freshman season but has moved into a more all-around role this year, and his progress was apparent with four points (two goals, two assists) in Tuesday’s semifinal win while also controlling 19 of 27 faceoffs.
Torin Whitten keys the Wildcats’ defensive effort against a Spring-Ford team that thrives on both quantity and quality of shots. Chad Young figures to be quite busy in the net, as he was in the teams’ first meeting with a dozen saves.
Spring-Ford at a Glance: The Rams’ furious comeback in the semifinals against Upper Merion underscored their championship mettle: a team that played an overall lackluster contest was great when they needed to be. Now a third consecutive PAC title is within reach.
Given the Rams’ ability to maintain and extend possessions, perhaps the critical matchup will be at the faceoff stripe, where OJR’s Daubert took 16 of 26 draws in the first meeting. Spring-Ford junior Sean Hassis has been on fire lately, most recently with a 15-for-20 showing against Upper Merion plus a fourth-quarter goal that keyed SF’s comeback.
Attackman and junior Brady Welsh has paced the Rams in scoring throughout 2024, with increasing contributions coming from Gavin Roth and Preston Page. But the semifinal with Upper Merion turned when midfielders like Ian Evans and game-winning goal scorer Wedemeyer became more aggressive in going to the cage rather than settling for outside shots.
“We locked in,” said Wedemeyer. “And we know now that we need to be on top of our game at all times.”
Jake Rogers and Ben Fish will figure prominently in coach Kevin Donnelly’s plan to stop the high-flying OJR offense, while sophomore goalie Dylan Cyr (16 saves in the first meeting) looks to continue his breakout campaign in his first year as SF’s starter.
Matchup and prediction: Spring-Ford has looked more vulnerable at times throughout 2024. They’ve needed overtime in two of their past three contests (the semifinal with Upper Merion, and against Perkiomen Valley on April 30) to claim victory.
But they have, indeed, claimed victory on both occasions – underscoring the Rams’ feel for big moments. They’re a team who’s been here before, and in fact in this same situation. Last season, Spring-Ford avenged a regular-season loss to Perkiomen Valley by throttling the Vikings in the PAC title game.
“It would be nice to get a revenge game with OJR,” said Ian Evans after Tuesday’s win, prior to knowing who Spring-Ford’s Thursday opponent would be. “They were pretty dominant at times. We’ll need to counter that, and work on our offensive movement and passing.
“It’s like last year, we came out and beat PV after losing to them in the regular season. It’s about playing our game.”
For Owen J. Roberts, the confidence is there after toppling the Rams, and coach Kevin Mo says another performance like Tuesday’s is the goal. The Wildcats scored 12 of the game’s final 14 goals and won the second half, 9-2.
“If we can recreate that, it’ll be perfect,” he said. “Things didn’t go our way early, but we were resilient and found our way back.”
The April contest was OJR’s first win over Spring-Ford in years and doing it twice in a season would validate the Wildcats’ uprising. A championship classic reminiscent of the bygone finals when the margin between the teams was razor thin is in the offing – but in the end, Spring-Ford stays on top for one more year. … Spring-Ford 10, Owen J. Roberts 8
