Late surge lifts Downingtown East past GV

Something had to give for Tuesday’s District 1 3A Boys Lacrosse Quarterfinal clash in the battle between ‘post-season Cinderella’ and the ‘one-goal wonders’ – also known as Garnet Valley and Downingtown East.

In the end, the result was eerily similar to an earlier regular season meeting, with the host Cougars clawing their way to a comefrom-behind 10-9 thriller.

It was an extraordinary clash, but a one-goal victory for the home team was not unusual. In fact, East now owns a 12-game winning streak, and five have been by a single goal -- including a pair versus the Jaguars.

“I think it’s been an advantage playing in so many games like this one. They battle-test you,” said Cougars’ head coach Joe Horvath.

“It was a great comeback for (East),” added Garnet Valley head coach Frank Urso. “I’m sure Joe is really proud of his team and he should be.”

The fifth-seeded Cougars (18-2 overall) advance to Thursday’s district semifinal to face No. 1 seed Radnor. The 13th-seeded Jags (12-9 overall) will face No.9 seed Kennett in the playbacks, also on Thursday.

“We are proud of the comeback and proud to move on,” Horvath said.

Facing its largest deficit of the entire season – 8-3 early in the second half – Downingtown East made some strategic moves that paid off and proceeded to score seven of the game’s final eight goals.

Attacker Jake Woodworth kickstarted the comeback, and fellow senior T.J. Shillingford ended it with his only goal of the game with 1:25 on the clock. It broke a 9-9 tie and gave the Cougars their first lead since the opening quarter.

“It was our biggest deficit all season,” Horvath confirmed. “But the kids never panic, they believe in one another, and they are ready to take it to the end. They will always play to the end.”

Almost a month ago to the day, East edged the Jaguars 9-8 on the same field. But for a long stretch, it looked like Garnet Valley was going to cruise in the rematch. It all changed, however, when the Cougars actually took standout midfielder Bo Horvath off the field for most of their second half possessions, and inserted him into the faceoff circle.

“We are willing to adjust, and we have a few more in our pocket that we will use at some point,” Joe Horvath said.

“We knew we needed to make adjustments at the half,” Woodworth added. “I think our coaches did a great job of explaining to us what we needed to do. We didn’t keep running the same stuff over and over again on offense.”

Throughout the opening half, the Jags face-guarded Bo Horvath and held him without a goal or an assist. Without that option in the second half, it opened things up for Woodworth and company.

“It’s fine with me if (East) wants to take their best player out,” Urso said. “But Joe (Horvath) did that because he has a lot of good players, and he can play without Bo.”

The comeback began with a goal by junior Luke Fiorillo midway through the third period. And then Woodworth took over, scoring two goals and assisting on another to Fiorillo. It all happened in a frenzied five-minutes-plus stretch, and by the end of the quarter, a five-goal deficit was sliced to 8-7.

“We started getting possession of the ball,” Woodworth said. “We are a super-scrappy team and we started getting the 50-50 ground balls. It gave us the opportunity to get shots on cage, and get it going.”