Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Conestoga boys, girls reach quarters
Boys: Pioneers start state adventure with win over league rival Haverford
FAIRVIEW VILLAGE >> It was, admittedly, a tough first-round assignment in the PIAA Class 3A playoffs for the newly crowned District 1 champions. But the Conestoga boys’ lacrosse squad understands that the quest for a state title is going to be filled with difficult challenges.
Drawing a league rival in a one-and-done situation is never ideal, and the Pioneers got off to a less than stellar start on Tuesday. But ’Stoga weathered it all for a hard-fought 9-5 de-
cision over an upset-minded Haverford squad making its first-ever state tournament appearance.
“That was a tough matchup for us in the first round, to tell you the truth,” said Conestoga head coach Brody Bush. “But when there are so few teams left, nothing is going to be easy because everybody is good.”
With the win in the allCentral League affair at Methacton, the Pioneers (20-3 overall) advance to Saturday’s state quarterfinals to face Manheim Township. The secondseeded squad from District 3 topped District 7 champion Peters Township, 135. Conestoga is now three wins away from winning the program’s first state championship since 2012.
“It was actually kind of weird playing a Central League team in states,” said senior attacker Henry Berg. “Haverford is a good team. We certainly didn’t underestimate them.”
The Fords’ season ends at 17-8 overall, and afterwards, head coach Greg Decina had mixed emotions.
“We didn’t sell ourselves short,” he said. “We didn’t come here just to make states, but we came to win it. We are upset, but this is a good learning experience.
“Our kids have battled every minute of every single game, so I am incredibly proud of them.”
The sixth-seed from District 1, Haverford jumped out to an early lead. And even though ’Stoga certainly didn’t panic, it was a bit of a wakeup call.
“We were excited, but we eventually settled down,” Bush said. “That might be a little youth on our part.”
Down 2-0 just over five minutes into the contest, the Pioneers proceeded to score seven of the next eight goals to open a fourgoal lead at the intermission. Berg notched three of the goals for Conestoga, and two of his tallies prompted Haverford to call a timeout.
“Henry is so quick that it’s really hard for defensemen to stay with him,” Bush pointed out. “And if you have slides that are late to him, he can really hurt you with shots right or left.”
The Fords, however, managed to stay within striking distance when midfielder Nick DiIorio registered the only goal of the third period. It remained 7-4 until ’Stoga’s Tommy Sopko ended a long scoring drought with 5:04 remaining.
Haverford’s Cole Lukasiewicz made it 8-5 soon thereafter, but Sean Bailey responded just 27 seconds later for the Pioneers, who then ran out the clock from there.
“Haverford is very well coached and they have a bunch of gritty players,” Bush said. “We knew that heading in and we were prepared.
“Holding a team like that to five goals is impressive. We played some great team defense.”
The Fords wanted to force a more controlled tempo, especially compared to the high-scoring, wideopen regular season meeting back on April 20. Conestoga won it 14-12.
“We didn’t think we just hung with them the first time,” Decina pointed out. “We probably should have won that one.
“Our defense buckled down and we slowed this game down a little. It was just more of a settled game than last time.”
Bush added: “This time it was more defensive. We didn’t score in the third quarter because they had the ball for most of it. But we countered pretty well in the fourth.”
Junior goalie Scott MacMillan didn’t see much action in the first half, but turned aside five of seven Haverford shots on the goal in the second.
“MacMillan is always good,” Berg said. “I thought our defense helped us out a lot. I actually thought they played better than the offense.”