McCaffery: With an edge and attitude, Radnor completes a three-peat

STATE COLLEGE —  All week, all day and for every tense minute of the PIAA Class 3A state boys lacrosse championship game Saturday, Max Goldstein had an idea that it was all about to give.

Building since Radnor High fell to Springfield in the District 1 championship match – if not weeks and months and years before that – it was a rivalry that had reached a new level. Respectful but physical, in context but with an edge, it was trending toward what would become an 8-1 Radnor victory that had just the right tinge of bitterness.

That was evident not just in how cleanly the Raptors won, but in how passionate they played, from the first quarter and into the fourth, when they were still attacking, hitting, swiping at rebounds and determined to prove that whatever it was that happened in the district final was the exception, not the new normal.

“They have been a rival for us,” said Goldstein, who scored a goal. “And after that game, we said, ‘We’re not losing another game for the rest of this season. This is our year.’ So at that point, every time we were on the lacrosse field, we knew we had to play our hearts out. And especially coming into this game, everybody was dialed-in at the hotel last night, everybody was dialed-in on the bus ride here, everybody was dialed-in in the locker room. And when we came out on that field we were juiced up and no one was going to beat us in this country today. Sorry.”

No apologies necessary, not after a 23-3 season, not after the Raptors’ third consecutive state championship. As for the explanations, they would be redundant, too, to the 1,000 or so who watched at Penn State’s Panzer Stadium. That’s because Radnor played with attitude, as if the Cougars were out to take something that belonged on King of Prussia Road and will belong there for a long time.

Every loose ball was chased with fury. Every Springfield rush was met with a thud. Every shot, or so it seemed, was just a mile an hour longer on exit velocity.

“That was not your imagination,” said Franklin & Marshall-bound Mason Montrella, who scored half of the Radnor goals. “There was definitely a lot of juice.”

Such was what was squeezed out of the Cougars’ 10-8 victory district championship game.

“I would definitely say that is accurate,” Montrella said. “That fueled our whole run in the states. We took that personally and we were really looking to get them back. That definitely gave us a lot of motivation and a lot of determination to win this game.”

At its core, the rivalry is a healthy result of a Central League so deep that both state champions – Marple Newtown won the Class 2A plaque – and the big-school runner-up came from the league. The familiarity with all of the players with one another was bound to become personal at some level.

As the story began to be told near the beginning of the state tournament, Radnor went to work almost immediately after that Springfield loss, and its practices became more detailed and intense. At the time, coach John Begier shared a list of areas that needed to improve if his team didn’t want to have to be satisfied with just a state-championship two-peat.

“Whether it’s clearing, whether it’s the faceoff circle, whether it is our six-on-six offense, or defense,” he had said., “we had to make good use of the time.”

Clearly, the Raptors did, peaking Saturday when it most mattered.

“I thought we were ready to play,” Begier said. “We were practicing well. We just felt that, a couple of weeks ago, we were just tight. So when we came to the states, it was getting back to being loose. And these guys are relentless in the way they compete.”

Some of that comes from being challenged all season, the privilege – the curse? – of being two-time champions.

“Radnor-Springfield is one of the best rivalries going, and both teams are always up for each other,” Begier said. “The coaches know each other very well. (Springfield coach) Tom Lemieux is a great friend. So I know his guys are always going to play hard. I just feel that every time we play, we are out there in the boxing ring together and you don’t know who is going to win.”

The Cougars, a little physical themselves, had some chances, but they caught Radnor senior goalkeeper Nick De Cain on the wrong day. When it was over, the Raptors chased Begier down for the usual, soaking him in water from dozens of plastic bottles.

“Wow,” said one Penn State employee on the sidelines, and in all seriousness. “That was the most aggressive celebration I have ever seen.”

That kind of month, that kind of week, that kind of day for the Raptors, the kind Max Goldstein, for one, long had seen coming.

Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com