Loading your audio article
UWCHLAN >> The last time Downingtown East dropped a boys’ lacrosse match to a league opponent, the year was 2021. But on Thursday, the Cougars came within a whisker of seeing that streak come to a crashing halt.
Visiting Avon Grove took second-seeded East to the very limit, and were just a couple minutes away from absolutely ruining the Cougars’ season in round two of the District 1 3A Playoffs. But East’s Jake McMahon notched his second of back-to-back goals in the final 82 seconds of regulation to send it to overtime, and then fellow senior Paxson Warnock capped off a big day from the faceoff X to score the game-winner in the first minute of the overtime to complete a dramatic 9-8 escape.
“I knew it was going to be a dogfight,” said Cougars’ head coach Joe Horvath. “(Avon Grove) has been underestimated. We needed to bring our A game today, and we certainly didn’t, especially in the early portions. But we showed a lot of resilience.
“We got the faith in one another back in the fourth quarter, and made it happen.”
Now 18-1 overall, East will host the winner of between (7) Spring-Ford and (10) Central Bucks East in the district quarterfinals on May 21. Following a first round bye, the Cougars had to find a way to get passed the 17th-seeded Red Devils in order to keep its season alive.
“It’s definitely a relief to win this game. We should have won it, and we did win it, but it was definitely a scare — for sure,” said McMahon.
“I’m sure it was lurking in the back of everyone’s mind that our season was in jeopardy,” Horvath added. “Our job as coaches is to try to push that away, stay positive, and the kids did a good job with that.”
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Avon Grove (12-8 overall), who led most of the way, flummoxed a potent East offense for most of the contest, and scored eight times against a defense that allowed an average of three per game against Ches-Mont foes in 2024.
“We’ve been saying all season that the sky is the limit with this team,” said Devils’ first-year head coach Bert Amanto. “It’s always just a battle with ourselves.
“When we play our best, we expect to be able to compete and win against very good opponents. We put our best foot forward today, but when you play a great team, sometimes it’s just not quite enough.”
Afterwards, Horvath was concerned with his team’s overall performance, but was also super proud of the way his squad played down the stretch with the season on the line.
“I want to be clear: that was a horrible game on our part,” he said. “I thought Avon Grove came to play and won in most facets, particularly on ground balls. Hats off to Avon Grove and their staff. We have a lot of things to repair, and not much time to do it.
“But I am also proud of the guts we showed.”
When the Devils’ Kody Parente notched his third goal with 2:46 remaining on the clock to open an 8-6 lead, the Cougars could have gone into panic mode. Instead, McMahon took a pass from teammate Connor Sweeney and scored to slice the margin in half with 1:22 on the clock.
And then after Warnock won the ensuing faceoff, Sweeney and McMahon hooked up again for the tying goal with just 17.5 left in regulation. Sweeney’s pass into traffic was high but McMahon somehow leapt, got control of the ball, and directed it in.
“I jumped up, and felt a (defender) on my back. I knew I had to catch it and then spin around and shot it,” McMahon explained.
“It was a great cut to the cage and Jake has soft hands when he knows he needs to make a catch,” Horvath added. “And the shot didn’t have a lot of velocity, but it had placement.”
Warnock then won the faceoff to start the OT, and 53 seconds later he buried a shot for the game-winner.
“Paxson is a gamer and he doesn’t worry about the situation, the scoreboard or the clock. He knows the task at hand and he commits to it,” Horvath said.
“I’d say it’s the biggest goal I’ve ever scored,” Warnock pointed out. “I just remember Jake McMahon setting a pick and I was going left. I was able to dodge (a defender) and score.”
When sophomore Keegan Kropp scored a man-down goal for East to tie the score at 3-3 late in the first half, it looked like the Cougars were going to come out of their early game funk. But Parente notched two goals in the final 41.6 to give Avon Grove all the momentum heading into halftime.
The Devils then got third quarter goals from long stick middie Ryan Coletto and attacker Josh Cox to make it 7-4. But the road back for East started when Kropp found Sweeney for a goal with 1.6 on the clock. And the stage was set for the wild finish when Warnock scored off an assist by Sweeney with 5:39 remaining to make it 7-6.
“I wasn’t worried,” Warnock said. “I knew we would find a way to come out with the W.
“But it did cross my mind that if we weren’t able to come back, this was going to be our last game – and I didn’t want the season to end.”
When asked if there was a hangover from a loss last week in the regular season finale at Garnet Valley – which handed the Cougars their only loss of the season – Horvath said: “To be honest, there is a hangover from playing in our league, going undefeated and winning (the Ches-Mont) for the third time. Those are very big accomplishments, but we can’t rest on those. If we don’t shake that, we will pay for it.”
In all, Warnock also won 16 of 20 faceoffs. East also had a slight edge in shots on goal (22-17), but Avon Grove goaltender Sean Boggetta came up with 13 saves.
“Sean (Boggetta) is a stud, and we have great poles around him and some great defensive midfielders,” Amanto said.
The Cougars now have a week to fix some issues and start playing the way they did at times, going 12-0 and winning a third straight Ches-Mont crown. And they are buoyed by winning a game that was seemingly snatched from the jaws of defeat.
“We definitely realized that our season could end here, but we kept being patient and looking for the right looks,” McMahon said.
“We are kind of used to winning games like this. Even going back to last season where we won a bunch of overtime games.”
Downingtown East 9, Avon Grove 8 (OT)
Avon Grove 1 4 2 1 0 — 8
Downingtown East 2 1 2 3 1 — 9
Avon Grove goals: Parente 3, Goldstein 2, B. Cox J. Cox, Coletto.
Downingtown East goals: Warnock 2, McMahon 2, Marusa 2, Sweeney, Kropp, Fiorillo.
Goalie saves: Boggetta (AG) 13; Quinn (DE) 9.
