Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Local teams looking to build off success
La Salle, LC and Wissahickon aiming to keep winning after strong 2021 seasons
The 2021 boys lacrosse season was a big one in the Reporter/Times Herald/ Montgomery area — especially for Wissahickon, Lansdale Catholic and La Salle.
The Trojans won their first outright Suburban One League title since 2010 and went undefeated in league play for the first time since 1993. They qualified for states for the first time in program history and won their first state playoff game.
The Crusaders finished third in the Philadelphia Catholic League regular season and reached the semifinals in their first season under head coach Mark Princehorn. They won the District 12-2A title and earned a state playoff berth.
La Salle continued its PCL dominance. The Explorers went 10-0 in the regular season and won their fifth straight league championship and 24th in the league’s 27-year history.
All three schools lost key players to graduation, including Wissahickon’s attackman Jackson Intrieri, LC’s goalie Connor Flanegan and La Salle’s goalie Luke Hreshko, but they all have reasons to believe they can build on their success.
Wissahickon, which finished one game ahead of Upper Dublin, 1.5 ahead of Upper Moreland and three ahead of Hatboro-Horsham in the SOL American Conference last spring, returns Penn State commit Kyle Lehman. Lehman, a junior, led the Trojans with 65 goals last year and added 28 assists and 50 ground balls.
LC brings back senior Connor Mann, a first team All-Area selection who had 80 goals, 24 assists and 57 ground balls as a junior, and senior Colin Corbett, who also earned first team All-Area honors as a junior with 28 goals, 29 assists, 67 ground balls and three caused turnovers.
La Salle will run it back with three first team AllArea selections in defender Will Pickering, midfielder Jack Pilling and attackman Charlie Huntley. With these three seniors at three different levels of the field, plus a host of talented players around them, the Explorers look to continue their PCL dominance.
In the SOL National Conference, Central Bucks East will try to defend its title from a season ago. Souderton and CB West will challenge after qualifying for districts last year while Pennridge and North Penn try to improve on 9-9 and 7-10 finishes, respectively.
Lansdale Catholic
Head Coach: Mark Princehorn (2nd year).
Last Year: 15-7, District 12-2A champions, PCL semifinalists, PIAA-2A state qualifier.
Key Returners: Colin Corbett, Mikey Kleinert, Pat McKeever, Connor Mann, Jake Lesher, Shane Lyons, Pat Cooney. Notable Losses: Connor Flanegan, Liam Hannon. Season Outlook: “We are a very experienced team offensively and have a lot of young talent on the defensive end. There is a tremendous amount of potential on this team as long as we continue to work hard. Our main goal is to be playing our best lacrosse in May and to improve every day out.”
North Penn
Head Coach: Rick Smith (12th season).
Last Year: 7-10
Key Returners: Danny Sloan, Lars Homan, Danny Myers, Matt Kuhn, Luke Patterson, Jake Dolan, Connor Toussaint, Ethan Bland.
Season Outlook: “We have a good core of seniors who will hopefully lead the team into competing at a high level. The goal is to compete every day at practice and show improvement with every game. To be prepared for the playoffs, we want to be playing our best lacrosse in May.” Pennridge
Head coach: Chris Pianko (1st year).
Last year: 9-9.
Key Returners: Kieran Banks, Adam Fantaskey, Luke Lenox, Ben Souder, Will Howley, Ryan Carickhoff.
Season Outlook: “We lost a
large senior class in ’21 and now have strong, but small, senior and junior classes this year. Those classes will be imperative in accomplishing our goals to reload and to continue to build on the progress the team has made in the past years. Our early practices have shown great leadership and buy-in from the upperclassman, as well as from the young players who got experience for us last year. We want to leverage that to instill a great culture and competitiveness that will help us be a better team come May as well as a better team in future years.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh Head Coach: Niko Amato (1st year).
Last Year: 4-11, 4-6 SOL American.
Key Returners: Luke Wendler, CJ Petrakis, Justin Bainbridge, Jared Kolsun.
Notable Losses: Jake Shaifer Season Outlook: “We are excited as we begin the process of rebuilding our program with a great mix of experienced, hardworking upper-classmen and a deep class
of talented, eager underclassmen.”
Souderton
Head Coach: Craig Hunsberger (1st year).
Last Year: 12-7, 5-5 SOL National, District qualifier.
Key Returners: Tyson Bui, Jamison McDivitt, Nick Curotto, Matt Malanga.
Notable Losses: Kobi Bui, Tommy Goshow, Lance Pelych, Manny Puente.
Season Outlook: “We are a young talented and athletic team looking to improve our in conference record, while playing tough out of conference games. We hope that by the end of the year we will be battling for a spot in the district one playoffs.”
Upper Dublin
Head Coach: Pat Lacon (4th year).
Last Year: 12-7 (Lost in the 2nd round in District 1playoffs).
Key Returners: RJ Boyd, Brett Callahan, Trent Dummeldinger, Vijay Foster, Louie Gamburg, Colin Higgins, Matt Hopper, Cael
Jamison, Emmett Kepniss, Luke Mastroni, Sam Morginstin, Dan Nardo, Jackson Simons, Jacob Watson.
Season Outlook: “We are very excited to see what the 2022 season has in store for us. We have a great mix of upperclassmen and younger players competing hard each and every day. Our mission is to be playing our best lacrosse come May.” Upper Moreland
Head Coach: Corey Kelly (4th year).
Last Year: 13-5, hosted first ever playoff game.
Season Outlook: “The Bears are looking to improve from their record from the previous season.”
Wissahickon
Head Coach: Matt Conway (2nd year).
Last Year: 18-6, 9-0 SOL American champs, District 1-3A quarterfinalist, first PIAA-3A state appearance and win.
Key Returners: Sam Baker, Quinn Fonash, Kyle Lehman, Jake Licata, Dean Wolfe.