Garnet Valley gets by Spring-Ford 8-7 at Katie Samson Festival

RADNOR >> Some 27 games, between girls and boys lacrosse, were played at the Katie Samson Lacrosse Festival Saturday in Radnor.

As the day went on, it became clear all were trying to live up to the competitive standard set by the morning’s first contest between two district and state title contenders.

Garnet Valley seized momentum right before halftime, then scored the first four goals of the second half before staving off a furious Spring-Ford rally to outlast the Rams, 8-7, in a seesaw contest at Radnor’s Creek Field.

Mitch Lachman led the victorious Jaguars (8-5) with three goals, but the game turned on goalie Jay Rose’s play with seconds remaining before halftime.

Trailing 5-3 at the time, and with only seconds remaining before the half, Rose fired a field-long pass that found the stick of Jags midfielder Nate Ominsky, who beat the buzzer to cut Spring-Ford’s halftime lead to a single goal.

“That’s a play where you’re just taking anything you can get,” Rose said after the game. “That was a heads-up play by Nate, taking advantage of the defense relaxing, and using every second we had.”

“Definitely changed the momentum,” agreed Garnet Valley Coach Frank Urso. “I think we would’ve been discouraged going into halftime, instead we were upbeat, ready to go.”

Lachman knotted the contest at 5 shortly after halftime, and attackman Danny Laird gave the Jags the lead for good with 40 seconds to go in the third quarter.

Lachman’s third goal along with a Danny Bradley tally expanded GV’s lead to 8-5, while the Jaguars’ defense stood tall at the other end, holding Spring-Ford without a goal for the first 20 minutes of the second half.

“That’s a great team with some top shooters,” said Urso. “But our biggest advantage, with Jay in the goal, is to limit them to outside shots.”

Spring-Ford (11-4) mounted a furious rally behind Jarrod Marenger (four goals) and a late score from Nicholas Teets, but Garnet Valley was able to maintain possession for the final minute and run out the clock.

For the Rams, the tough defeat came with the solace that they’d stood toe-to-toe with a state heavyweight.

“We’ve tried to put together a schedule that challenges us against the best teams this area has to offer,” said coach Kevin Donnelly, “and we’ve done that.”

“Now we need to take the next step and start grabbing some wins in these games.”

Garnet Valley jumped to an early 3-1 lead in the first four minutes of the game. before the Rams’ defense buckled down, holding the Jaguars scoreless for the next 19 minutes. Kyle Pettine registered some big first-half saves for Spring-Ford, and the defense stood particularly tall in the second quarter, staving off several minutes of Garnet Valley attack zone time while killing off an extra-man opportunity.

Meanwhile, Spring-Ford senior Marenger tallied three times for the Rams before the half and was joined by Kyle Mason and Peyton Gensler in giving SF a 5-3 lead, before Garnet Valley broke the drought in grand fashion with Rose and Ominsky connecting for the first-half buzzer beater.

Saturday marked the 19th annual Katie Samson Lacrosse Festival, and a record 54 teams participated in this year’s event.

Katie Samson grew up in Wayne and played lacrosse for Radnor High School before moving onto Middlebury College, where she was a national championship-winning goaltender in 1999.

The following winter, Katie sustained a spinal cord injury while sledding, and was paralyzed with quadriplegia.

With the encouragement of friends and family, Katie returned to Middlebury, completing her degree and serving as an assistant coach on two more national championship-winning squads. After completing her graduate degree, Katie came back to Pennsylvania in 2010 and became an active member of the Katie Samson Foundation.

Organizers expected the total amount of money raised for spinal cord injury research and awareness over those 19 years to cross the $2 million mark this weekend.

“This is a great event, which we’ve been doing for a couple years now,” said Donnelly. “To continually be invited here is very special to our program.”

“Awesome event,” Urso agreed. “First of all, what it stands for, we’re glad to be here and support the cause.

“From a lacrosse perspective, you get to see a number of great teams. We’ll always come here.”