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BOYS LACROSSE: La Salle Dominates in Bout With League Challenger Lansdale Catholic

By James Williamson, 04/24/21, 1:15AM EDT

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BY: JAMES WILLIAMSON

WYNDMOOR- Water is wet, air is gaseous, and La Salle College High School is one of the most dominant lacrosse programs in the Philadelphia Catholic League. This third fact was reinforced Thursday afternoon as the Explorers cruised to an 18-3 victory over a formerly undefeated Lansdale Catholic team.

“It was a great team win, got to kind of get after it even though it’s cold out,” said La Salle senior goalie, Luke Hreshko. “We just played great team offense and defense.”

It was a chilly day at La Salle High School, but the Explorers managed to get off to a blistering start, scoring seven goals in the game’s opening quarter while holding Lansdale scoreless. Many of the Crusader’s struggles on the afternoon stemmed from an inability to maintain possessions. Whether it was failing to capitalize on faceoffs or turning the ball over on clears, Lansdale simply could not hold onto the ball.

“When you play one of the best, if not the best, team in the state and you make some fundamental errors, you make some mental errors, they’re going to capitalize and you have to rise to the occasion and you’ve got to play a cleaner smarter game,” said Lansdale Catholic head coach, Mark Pricehorn. “We didn’t do that today and it cost us.”

Struggles clearing the ball have been a recurring theme for the Crusaders to start their season. Although they have made some improvements clearing the ball in recent weeks, La Salle was able to take advantage of Lansdale Catholic’s biggest shortcoming with ease and limit their possessions for the majority of the game.

La Salle vs. Lansdale Catholic Game Highlights by: James Williamson

La Salle senior goalie Luke Hreshko talks about his team's strong defense. (video- James Williamson)

We’ve had some issues in the clearing game that we’ve worked on and it actually has improved greatly over the course of the last two games,” said Pricehorn. “It’s really tough to see how good our adjustments have been when you’re playing a team this good, but we’ve made stops on defense, we made some turnovers on defense and we’ve given them second chance opportunities by turning the ball back over on the clear. That is the glaring issue that I see is going on with us right now.”

While the second quarter did not see as much firepower from the Explorer’s offense as the first, they still managed to hang another five goals on the Crusaders to take a 12-1 lead into halftime. By the end of the first half, four different players, juniors Andrew Kelly, Charlie Huntley, Franky Fix, and senior Mason Lazasz, each had multiple goals for the Explorers.

La Salle senior Mason Lazasz talks about his team's strengths. (video- James Williamson)

La Salle senior Paul Jennings talks about season goals. (Video- James Williamson)

According to Lazasz, La Salle’s abundance of scoring options is the result of the team’s close bond and familiarity with one another.

“I think our team just has a great connection together,” said Lasasz. “We’ve been playing together for a long time and it really shows out on the field and we move the ball around and that’s it.”

The second half would follow a similar script as the first, with La Salle scoring seemingly at will, while keeping the ball out of Lansdale’s hands, limiting their possessions and scoring opportunities. La Salle emptied their bench late in the game and gave their backups some extra playing time for a good chunk of the second half. Lansdale managed to score two goals in the fourth quarter, but it would be too little too late, as the Explorers secured their 18-3 victory.

“I thought we played well all around, it was a good team win,” said La Salle head coach Rob Forster. “Lansdale Catholic is a very good team, and they came excited to play and I thought we handled that emotion pretty well. I thought we matched their emotion from the start. Got a lot of guys in which is good. Just a good step forward for us.”

This game had the makings of an exciting matchup between two of the PCL’s undefeated teams, but quickly turned into a one-sided affair that simply confirmed something most already knew; La Salle is really good at playing lacrosse.

By the end of the afternoon, eleven different Explorers managed to score a goal with seven players finding the back of the net more than once. Lazasz led the team’s scoring with three goals.

“I thought we shared the ball well. I thought we moved it well. I thought we shot well,” said Forster. “They have a very good goalie, Connor Flanegan, and we had to take good, smart shots to beat him, and I thought we did that from the beginning.”

The final result may have been disappointing, but  Pricehorn, walked away from this loss optimistic. The Crusaders still have a lot to prove and there was plenty they could take away from their first loss of the season.

“Our goal ever since we started this season is to play our best lacrosse in May and when you play a La Salle caliber team, you can learn from losing to a team like this, you can set yourself up for success,” said Pricehorn.

 “A loss is only truly a loss if you can’t learn from it. So, we’ll go back, we’ll look at the film, we’ll come work hard tomorrow in practice and we’ll get better and that’s really the only option there is for us, to get better," said Pricehorn.

 

Goals: La Salle; Jack Pilling 2, Mason Lazasz 3, Andrew Kelly 2, Charlie Huntley 2, Franky Fix 2, Jack Vandergrift 2, Peter Oppenheimer 1, Tom Vandergrift 2, Tim Mehlmann 1, Harry Sweitzer 1, Colin Wakefield 1.

Lansdale C: Connor Mann 1, Bobby Lombardo 2.