ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH 2022 FSL LACROSSE CHAMPIONS

(Photos & Video by Lennie Malmgren for PSD)

BY JAMES WILLIAMSON

BRYN ATHYN, PA--When God sent torrential rainfall, Moses built a boat and collected two of every animal. But on May 6th, when similar biblical rainfall fell on the Academy of the New Church’s turf field, the Lion’s lacrosse team didn’t build an ark, but they did add another championship trophy to their case. The Lions won their eighth consecutive Friends Schools League Championship. Despite the harsh elements and trailing at the half, the Academy of the New Church defeated Westtown School 13-11 to secure their impressive win streak.

The sky was gray, the winds were strong, and the conditions were very wet, but that didn’t stop the Academy of the New Church (13-3) and Westtown (8-9) from competing for the Friends League Championship. Both teams wasted no time getting going on offense, combining to score 15 goals in the opening half.

Coming out of the half and setting the pace was ANC senior and Drexel commit Jack Joyner.  The Lions looked like a team in control. The intermission gave them the chance to re-group and it proved to make all the difference. It would take them a little over a minute to tie the game up at eight and two minutes after that, Owen Carr put ANC up 9-8 and they would never look back.

Westtown’s first goal of the second half wouldn’t come until the 5:08 minute mark in the fourth quarter to make it an 11-9 game, but by that point it was too late. The Lions were a force on both sides of the field in the second half. Their offense was precise and allowed very few opportunities for Westtown to mount a comeback and what little chances they were given were quickly taken care of by Carver and the Lion’s defense.

Each team would score two goals apiece in the waning minutes of the game, but they would serve nothing but the box score as ANC already had the game in hand. When the clock struck triple zero, the Lions held onto the 2-point lead and clinched their eighth-straight Title and third consecutive under head coach Jack Forster.

This impressive victory serves as a testament to the Academy of New Church’s dominance in the Friends League over the last decade and with a strong group of underclassmen, they should be ready for another season high.

Westtown, under first year head coach Desi Gonzalez continues to grow as a team. So, expect to see an even stronger team next season.