Butler a road warrior behind strong defense

Tri-State Sports & News Service

There haven’t been many days when Trever Monteleone wasn’t somehow affiliated with the Butler boys lacrosse program.

He played for the Golden Tornado through his high school years and was an assistant coach for two years after he graduated.

Now, the 22-year-old remains a fixture on the Butler sideline, but he’s the guy running the show as one of the youngest head coaches of any team in any sport in the WPIAL.

“It was kind of shocking at first, but I actually like it a lot and, in my interview with the school, it actually helped me with the age barrier,” Monteleone said. “It’s not an older guy yelling at you because you’re only a few years older than them and you can relate.”

So far he has gotten the most out of his team as Butler was 6-3 and tied for third place in Class 3A Section 2 behind powerhouses Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon. But the road has not been easy for the Golden Tornado in the early going.

“We’re one of the most northern teams and we got put into a travel division, but we do have playoff hopes,” Monteleone said. “We were in a really tough section two years ago with North Allegheny and Pine-Richland and Seneca Valley, so this year we were able to switch it and, hopefully, make the playoffs.”

Prior to the season, the WPIAL shifted from three sections to four with the top four teams in each qualifying for the postseason. It was designed to foster a more positive approach to development of the sport and gave teams that had little chance of qualifying for the postseason a realistic goal to get into the tournament.

“If you look at it from our perspective, you only need two wins to make the playoffs and be like a No. 4 seed,” Monteleone said. “It helps a lot.”

If Butler does make the playoffs, it will be through its defense, which has allowed only six goals in its past three games. Several of the team’s top players are defenders including Jake Tilko, Connor Bachman and Ben Kranbacher.

“We stay in single digits in most of our games,” Monteleone said. “We have a lot of juniors and seniors and they’re playing as a defenseoriented team.”

Trinity girls

A year ago, Trinity made its first appearance in the WPIAL Class 2A girls lacrosse playoffs.

Their trip was brief, however, as the 12th-seeded Hillers were dealt a first-round loss by Mars.

This year, though, Trinity has improved dramatically and could prove to be a scary opponent in the postseason.

“I was the assistant coach with this team two years ago when the seniors were sophomores, so being the head coach has been great because those seniors have stepped up and become leaders with the younger kids,” first-year Trinity coach Lori Banky said. “Anything my assistants and I tell them, they do on the field, so it’s been really fun to watch them grow as talented individuals and they’re really good as a team.”

That knowledge of the team has certainly helped Trinity move up and become one of the better teams in the WPIAL. The Hillers, who came into the week 9-0-1, also posted a signature win earlier in the season with an 8-7 overtime victory against perennial contender Quaker Valley to take over sole possession of first place in Section 2.

“They’re starting to gain confidence because they’re not used to being an undefeated team,” Banky said. “What we’ve really stressed to them is that we have a very competitive section and every game can be a win or a loss. We could end up being undefeated or we could end up being 9-9, so we need to show up for every game.”

It helps that Trinity has an offense that can go toe-totoe with anyone in its section. Senior attacker Haley Bendik has already scored 43 goals this season including a 10-goal game, while 2017 all-section selection and IUP recruit Abigail Cernak controls the midfield and has 25 goals this year.

Even with the early success, though, Trinity is not about to get ahead of itself and make room for a championship trophy.

“I don’t think we look into the distant future,” Banky said. “We plan every practice to practice for the upcoming game.”

One of the best runs in recent history came to an end when Penn-Trafford defeated Hempfield, 7-3, Sunday at Seton Hill University.

Hempfield, the winner of back-to-back WPIAL and PIAA championships, had not lost since April 27, 2016, and racked up 46 consecutive victories in the process.

The Warriors (10-2) used a four-run sixth inning to pull away from Hempfield (7-1).

Sunday’s contest was a non-section matchup, but the Westmoreland County powers used to be section rivals when there were four classifications.

The Warriors snapped another streak in the process. They had lost eight in a row to the Spartans, with the previous victory being a 2-0 triumph April 30, 2013.

After playing against each other so many times, Penn-Trafford coach Denny Little said every game against the Spartans is a big one. Ending a winning streak that spanned three seasons only made the victory sweeter.

“I’m not sure if it was the streak we were focused on,” said Little. “Anytime we play Hempfield, it is a great rivalry game and easy to get up for. Of course, winning a game like that is a great confidence builder, then add to it ending their amazing streak simply puts the cherry on top.”