Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
La Salle bullies ’Stoga to reach final
For most of the 20 seniors on the Conestoga boy’s lacrosse roster, June 5, 2018 will not be remembered as much as graduation day, but rather the day that the dream of winning a state championship came to an inglorious end.
Just a few hours before getting their high school diplomas, the large group competed together for the last time. And even though the Pioneers got off to a great start, La Salle scored seven of the last eight goals to run away with a 7-4 victory in the semifinals of the PIAA Class 3A Tournament held at Owen J. Roberts.
“(La Salle) just overpowered us in the second half,” said senior midfielder Nick Cost. “They played better that we did and they deserved to win.”
With the way ’Stoga was playing, coming off a convincing quarterfinal victory over rival Avon Grove, and a dominating first quarter on Tuesday, it’s hard to figure out where it all turned around against the District 12 champs.
“(La Salle) adjusted well at the half and into the second half,” explained senior midfielder Tate Kienzle. “Once they got on a run they took that momentum and kept on rolling. We didn’t get a couple calls, or a couple bounces went the other way.”
Now 19-4 overall, the Explorers have earned the right to play for the state crown on Saturday (4:30 p.m. at West Chester East) against the Garnet Valley-Manheim Township winner. For Conestoga, the season ends with a 19-6 mark.
“I want to thank this group of seniors,” Pioneers’ head coach Brody Bush said. “They were fantastic leaders for us and we are going to miss them a lot next season. They leave this program much better than when they came in. They’ve set the bar high.”
Conestoga continued its regular season dominance in the Central League in 2018, but fell to Garnet Valley in the district final and came up a game shy of a second straight appearance in the state final.
“I’ve played with a lot of these guys since first grade,” Kienzle said.
“We didn’t win much at the start of the season, but it was against very good competition,” Cost added. “That set us up for the 15-game win streak. I think the Garnet Valley loss was actually good for us. We matured and it showed against Avon Grove (in a 12-6 triumph last weekend).”
And at the start on Tuesday, the Pioneers were razor sharp against La Salle. Cost scored a goal and dished out an assist to teammate Will Schnorr to make it 2-0 heading into the second period. In addition, the Explorers were unable to get a shot on goal until the 16-minute mark.
Another ’Stoga senior, Kent Hjelm, made it 3-0 with an unassisted goal, which caused La Salle to call a timeout with 2:28 left in the half. Less than a minute later, the Explorers got on the board with a goal by Matt Clibanoff.
Even though it was 3-1 at the break, the rousing start may, or may not, have lulled the Pioneers into a false sense of complacency.
“I think we got a little too comfortable with the lead. But it was only a two goals lead,” Cost said.
“I don’t think we were complacent at all, but we did get tired,” countered Bush. “(La Salle) is a wellcoached team and they had a good plan going in.”
After trying unsuccessfully with two others to counter Conestoga faceoff specialist James Reilly, La Salle tried Connor Helm and the junior won the first two of the second half, which led to quick goals by Ethan Lamond and Chris Mockaitis. Two more goals followed and the Pioneers had a 5-3 lead.
“(La Salle) had some long possession, moved our defense and tired them out,” Kienzle said.
“Usually the third is our best quarter, but lately we’ve had leads and we’ve struggled to because we get too complacent,” Cost pointed out. “I hope the underclassmen learn from this for next season.”
With just over a minute left in the third quarter, Kienzle ended the 5-0 rally with a goal. And then early in the fourth, goaltender Scott MacMillan made a spectacular pointblank save, but ’Stoga was unable to capitalize.
“We only scored one second half goal and I thought we’d turn that into more of a run, but (La Salle) got possession and sucked the life out of it,” Kienzle explained.
The Pioneers’ Joe Taylor made it 6-4 with 7:37 remaining, and the Pioneers spent most of the rest of the way trying to kill off ill-timed penalties.
“We felt like we had another run in us all along,” Bush said. “But we got some penalties, especially down the stretch, and there wasn’t any called against (La Salle).
“They had some man-up goals and opportunities because of mistakes we made. If there was one more save on our end, and one more goal for us, it could have come down to the last minute.”
Yet another senior, James Reilly won 11 of 15 face offs, but ’Stoga had all kinds of trouble turning the extra possessions into scoring opportunties.
“(La Salle) prevented us from scoring,” Bush said. “Their defense did a good job. We only had one goal in the last three quarters. You obviously can’t win a game if you do that against a team like that.
“We made some mental errors. There were some turnovers clearing the ball.”