La Salle aims for 3rd PIAA title against Springfield-Delco
When La Salle’s lacrosse team shows up Saturday morning (11:30) at West Chester East High School for the PIAA final vs. Springfield-Delco, they’ll do so by bus.
But it is not just any bus.
From the start of the year, the Explorers (21-3) have traveled via an “Energy Bus,” a fictitious vehicle that represents many of the necessities to building a winning team.
Based on the books written by several successful coaches, the bus is a metaphor for building a successful team.
“You have your foundations, which are the tires, and you don’t change them,” explained Explorers head coach Bill Leahy, whose team will be playing in its seventh state final. “Then you have your bumpers, which are to guard you against the difficult times you go through, and then the seats, which are how you arrive at your destinations.
“You’re always going to have potholes, but you have to leave the exhaust behind.”
One can assume the Cougars will arrive the normal way, but they have more than their share of bumps in the road this season as they chase down their first state crown.
Springfield opened the season by losing five of its first six contests, then have won 18 of 20 since.
Talk about getting hot at the right time, the Cougars (19-7) have blown into the finals with confidence and hope, and with one of the area’s top goaltenders in James Spence, who is Lehigh-bound and who has carried the Cougars to the gates of the promised land.
That’s not to say the Eastern champs are a one-man gang.
They’ve gotten clutch scoring from the likes of Mike Gerzabek, Nick Martin, Mike Vent, Kyle Long and Jack Spence, and a defense that Leahy says is one of the best he’s seen this season.
“They deserve to get to this game,” Leahy said. “We’re going to have our hands full.”
La Salle has gotten by this year with a balanced team attack that does not depend on a small handful of scorers, but emphasizes a team effort.
Brett Baskin, Chris Hladczuk, Matt Clibanoff and Cody Mazurek have been the key weapons. But the likes of Colin Cahill, Ethan LaMond and Craig Coleman have come along as the season has progressed.
As for how the respective coaches expect to go after their opponent, Cougars head coach Tom Lemieux said don’t expect anything out of the ordinary.
“We had a tough going early in the year, but the kids have fought for each other and they’ve grown up a lot.
“Graduating one of the best players we’ve ever had here in Lucas Spence didn’t help, and we had some early injuries.
“But the important thing is we learned from our losses.
“So we’re not going to change much. We’re going to go down swinging with the way we play.”
La Salle, too, had some difficult times to overcome, but has hung together and now is on the verge of landing the program’s third PIAA crown.
“It’s all about La Salle,” Leahy said. “You play for the name on the front of the jersey, not the one on the back.
“We’re glad we’ve gone through all we’ve gone through.”
In fact, Leahy said the only disappointing thing is that the game will be played at West Chester East High School instead of the normal state-championship site at HersheyPark Stadium.
“No doubt it’s cool to go to Hershey,” Leahy said. “But I guess you can’t beat out Beyoncé.”
