La Salle wins third straight Catholic League title over St. Joe’s Prep
SPRINGFIELD >> The question was never about who would win the 2018 Philadelphia Catholic League boys lacrosse championship. It was how much would La Salle win by.
The Explorers answered that question Friday evening with an 11-2 win over St. Joe’s Prep at Cardinal O’Hara High School to claim their third straight league championship and 22nd overall.
“(The players) really love each other,” La Salle coach Bill Leahy said. “They’re really good kids. They care for each other a lot. When you get into a championship game that shows. And they work hard every day. They went out and played a nice game today.”
“We just scrap,” senior Brendan Meagher, a Lansdale native, said. “We work really hard. Our practices are some of the most competitive things I’ve ever seen. We always get after each other and sometimes there’s fights in practice — it gets heated. At the end of the day, we love each other. So when we get out here on the field it’s easy to take it to someone.”
Meagher got the scoring started. He scored the first goal of the game less than two minutes in and had a hat trick in the first quarter to help the Explorers build a 4-1 advantage after 12 minutes.
“The opportunities came to me,” Meagher said. “My teammates did a great job and coaches of putting me in the right spots. It was just about finishing.”
“It was really important (to get off to a hot start),” Leahy said. “We talked a lot about it. Last game we were up 3-0 (against Lansdale Catholic in PCL semifinals). I think we got up 3-0 again this time. It was part of the plan.”
The lead grew to 5-1 at halftime, 9-1 after three quarters and 11-2 at the final buzzer.
The senior class for the Explorers started their high school careers with a loss to St. Joe’s Prep in the PCL championship game. Now, they’re going out with three straight title-game wins against their hated rival.
“It’s a great feeling,” Meagher said. “I wouldn’t want to do this with another group of guys. I think we have 17 seniors this year, so it’s pretty awesome for us to get on a hot streak during the end of our careers here.”
Meagher and Ethan LaMond each finished with three goals for La Salle. Robert Foster had two and Matt Clibanoff, Ethan Masucci and Chris Mockaitis each had one.
The Explorers defense did what it’s been doing all season and kept the Prep in check. Goaltender Mike Clibanoff made four saves.
“Coach (Anthony) Resch is a big part of it,” Leahy said of the defensive success. “The guys are working hard. We lost (defenseman Brett) Mallee early in the year, which was tough he’s going to Maryland. We just stayed with it — stay with what we do. We don’t do anything crazy, we just try to play good, strong defense.”
Andrew Clevenger scored for St. Joe’s to make it 3-1 in the first quarter and Eric Scheuerle made it 10-2 in the fourth.
The teams will meet for the third time this season next week for the city championship before moving on to states.
