Downingtown East holds off Spring-Ford to advance to semifinals
UWCHLAN >> It may not always be esthetically pleasing, but the Downingtown East boys’ lacrosse squad continues to win and advance in the District 1 3A Tournament.
In a district quarterfinal Tuesday, the host Cougars took command with a dominating second quarter, but had to hold on down the stretch to edge seventh-seeded Spring-Ford, 8-6, and advance to the semifinal round. It was the second stressful finish in a row for second-seeded East, who need overtime to escape a second round upset to Avon Grove last week.
“I think we are more of a playoff team, I guess,” said Cougars’ junior goaltender Brady Quinn. “We seem to be OK winning close games.”
Now 19-1 overall, East will host the winner of (9) Garnet Valley-(11) Ridley on Thursday at 3:45 pm. The Cougars suffered their only loss of the season in the regular season finale at Garnet Valley 12 days ago, but did register an 8-7 nail-biter at Ridley back in late March.
“We’ve played both teams this season,” East head coach Joe Horvath said. “Garnet Valley took it to us (13-7) and we ekked by Ridley. Either one will be a tough Central League opponent, so we have to have a good practice (Wednesday) and stay focused.
“We are at home this time. Let’s see if we can put together a better performance.”
With the win, the Cougars guaranteed themselves a berth in the upcoming PIAA Tournament. Spring-Ford falls to 16-4, but will get a chance to earn a spot in the state playoffs on Thursday in a playback clash against the Garnet Valley-Ridley loser.
“At least we can put that past us and focus on the task at hand,” Horvath said, referencing the PIAA clincher.
Deadlocked a 1-1 through one quarter, East seized control by outscoring the Rams 5-0 in the second period. Connor Sweeney had a goal and dished out two assists in the rally, and fellow senior Luke Fiorillo chipped in with two goals.
“I think we played some of the best defense and offense in that second quarter,” Horvath said. “On offense we were very patient, found the open guy and had some nice placement on shots. We were very pleased with that quarter – we need more of those.”
Spring-Ford head coach Kevin Donnelly added: “We kind of lost it a little bit mentally in the second quarter. We just kind of unraveled there for a little bit. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the ball enough to right the ship. (East) did a nice job possessing throughout the quarter.”
The Rams comeback started when senior Ian Evans scored in the final minute of the third to make it 7-3. And then senior midfielder Hayden Wedemeyer took over by scoring twice, and delivering the pass for a man-up goal by teammate Gavin Roth, to slice the margin to 7-6 with 7:52 on the clock.
“We started getting a little too relaxed,” Horvath said. “And this was a game with new conditions, like the heat. Plus we have some injuries, so other guys were getting more runs which we are not particularly used to.
“Plus we were losing faceoffs, which always makes it difficult. And we were turning it over on careless catching and throwing errors. That will cut you in half. We have to repair that.”
Downingtown East’s Ben Petrillo (19) drives around Spring-Ford defenders Ryan Lynch and Ben Fish on Tuesday. Photo by Tom Silknitter.
Quinn, however, made the last of his 13 saves for the Cougars on a shot by Spring-Ford’s Mike Bendowski with 1:37 to go, East called a timeout, and then proceeded to play keep-away until Sweeney added an insurance goal with 7.4 seconds to go.
“(Quinn) did a terrific job,” Horvath said. “He maintains a cool head no matter the circumstances. No matter how much his team, or his coaching staff, is flying off the handle, he is calm under pressure.”
Sweeney, junior Ben Petrillo and Fiorillo each scored twice for the Cougars, and Sweeney finished with three assists. Wedemeyer and Evans paced the Rams with two goals and an assist apiece, and junior Sean Hassis won 12 of 17 faceoffs.
“I was really proud of the way we came out in the second half. Our guys battled,” Donnelly said.
East did not have starting attacker Jake McMahon or long-stick midfielder Caleb Aikens, who were out with injuries. And starting defender Devon Higgins re-aggravated an ankle injury and missed time as well.
“We are at the point where you don’t have a lot of time to recover from injuries, so your bench is going to have to step up,” Horvath pointed out.
“We did a good job of bringing ourselves together,” Quinn said of the first half. “We realized this is a playoff game, and we were locked in mentally.
“We just need to maintain that for the rest of the game. We can’t let teams come back like that.”
Downingtown East 8, Spring-Ford 6
Spring-Ford 1 0 2 3 — 6
Downingtown East 1 5 1 1 — 8
Spring-Ford goals: Wedemeyer 2, Evans 2, Welch, Roth.
Downingtown East goals: Sweeney 2, Petrillo 2, Fiorillo 2, Kropp, Phillips.
Goalie saves: Cyr (SF) 8; Quinn (DE) 13.
