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BOYS LAX: Personal Milestones, Family Affairs & Big End-of-Season Victories Highlight This Week’s Inter-Ac Notebook

By Marc Narducci , 05/09/23, 12:45PM EDT

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Photos/Videos: Zamani Feelings, Ryan Nix, James Quinn & Marc Narducci

By: Marc Narducci

A Penn Charter personal milestone against the Inter-Ac’s top team

This is one game that Penn Charter junior Gavin Michener will always remember. His team lost to the Inter-Ac’s lone unbeaten team, Haverford School, but despite being undermanned, the Quakers played one of their best games all season.

They would eventually lose, 16-12 to Haverford, but there were so many positives for the injury-plagued Quakers, beginning with Michener.

A Villanova commit, Michener had four goals and two assists and scored the 100th goal of his career.

Penn Charter and Haverford School were tied at 12-12 with under five minutes remaining and the Quakers took several shots in an attempt to take the lead.

Eventually, Haverford School took over and scored the game’s final four goals.

“It’s tough to lose when we were so competitive, but I am proud of my teammates,” Michener said. “We have had a lot of injuries, but the next man mentality was there, and everybody stepped up and did his job.”

Of course, Haverford showed why it is both unbeaten in league play and nationally ranked for a reason. The Fords are both talented and deep. So that was a good showing by Penn Charter against a great team.

“I don’t like the phrase ‘moral victory’ but it shows we can hang with anybody,” Michener said.

Michener can sure hang with anybody. The four goals gave him 101 for his career. He played his first two seasons with his brother Colin, now a freshman at Villanova recovering from an ACL injury. This year, Gavin Michener has had to shoulder more of the scoring load, and he has done just that.

With two goals in Friday’s 13-6 loss at Episcopal Academy, he now has 49 goals this season.


Penn Charter junior Gavin Michener #9 - PSD Photo by Zamani Feelings

PENN CHARTER JUNIOR GAVIN MICHENER SCORED HIS 100TH CAREER GOAL IN GAME VS. HAVERFORD SCHOOL:

One thing that has helped Michener is that he made his commitment to Villanova in October and didn’t have to worry about the stresses of recruiting this lacrosse season.

As for passing the century mark in goals, he naturally took pride in that achievement, especially considering the Inter-Ac is among the best leagues around.

“I am proud of myself and my teammates and the coaches for trusting me to do a lot of the hard work,” he said. “It was a good feeling and good to see that everybody was pumped up for this milestone.”

Other Penn Charter news

In addition to Michener, Chet Kempinski and Delaware commit Owen Black each had two goals and one assist against Haverford, while Nick Walter scored twice.  Casey Felter and Ben Zabierek each had a goal.

In the next game, a 13-6 loss at Episcopal Academy, Black had a hat trick, Michener scored twice and Felter had the other goal.

The Quakers ended their week with a 19-7 win over Allentown Central Catholic.

Inter-Ac standings (through Saturday May 6)

Haverford School 8-0, 14-2

Malvern Prep 6-2, 11-7

Episcopal Academy 5-3, 11-7

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy 3-5, 10-6

Penn Charter 1-7, 7-12

Germantown Academy 1-7, 4-12

Haverford School brothers to square off in future Army-Navy matchups

The Army Navy game in any sport, but especially lacrosse will have special meaning in the next few years for the DiRocco family.

That is because Haverford School senior attack Ryan DiRocco will attend Army. His brother, junior attack Aydan DiRocco, will attend Navy.

The brothers have been teammates throughout their lacrosse careers, but that will change in college.

“That will be a lot of fun,” Aydan said about facing his brother in college. “I enjoyed playing with him a lot, but I made the decision to take my own path and I am proud of it.”

Ryan DiRocco had a similar view on facing his brother in college.

“I am really excited, and it will be super fun facing him,” Ryan said. “I am also happy for him and it will be awesome.”

Ryan said he is fulfilling a life-long dream by attending Army.

“I am really happy with my decision,” he said. “I always wanted to go to a military academy and Army was just the best fit.”

Of course, before departing for college, there is some unfinished business. Haverford School has already clinched at least a tie for the Inter-Ac crown, which this season will be decided by the regular season champion and not the postseason tournament.

Ryan and Aydan DiRocco talk about the reasons for Haverford School's success this season - PSD Video by Marc Narducci

What has stood out with this year’s team is how unselfish the players are. During any game, one of several players could emerge as the leading scorer.

“We feed off each other’s energy and our chemistry is off the charts and we just play super well together and just love being around each other,” Ryan said.

Aydan points out one specific trait that has made the Fords such an improved team (although last year’s team, was very successful before falling 11-10 in overtime to Malvern Prep in the Inter-Ac title game).

“The biggest improvement with us is our ball movement,” Aydan said. “We just have a ton of threats, and everybody can rely on each other, and I think the big part is everybody trusts each other.”

Beating No. 1

In a rare matchup of top five teams in the country, Haverford School earned a 16-15 home win over St. Anthony’s of New York on Saturday.

St. Anthony’s was ranked No. 1 by Nlfrankings.com in the most recent rankings that came out Tuesday May 2.

It wasn’t like this was a monumental upset since Haverford School was ranked No. 4. The game was played before a large crowd at Haverford School.

“It was a cool atmosphere,” Haverford School coach Brendan Dawson said. “They are a great team, and it was a heck of a battle.”

Leading 16-15, Haverford School had to hold off one final rally by St Anthony’s.

Brody Murphy made a great save to seal it for us,” Dawson said.

Dawson said there were so many big performances, including Connor Nolen and Brendan Leary on defense, and the work of junior Ben McCarthy, the Duke commit, who is considered among the better faceoff performers in the country.

In addition, this was a big day for the offense.

Wells Flinn had three goals, including the go-ahead score and it was a great play,” Dawson said.


Haverford School junior Connor Nolen #5 - PSD Photo by Mike Nance


Haverford School junior Ben McCarthy #33 - PSD Photo by Mike Nance

There were so many of those big plays in a truly impressive win.

Also scoring three goals were Ryan DiRocco and junior Brady O’Kane. Scoring two goals were Rutgers commit Colin Zeller and Will Burfeind. Single goals were scored by Leary, Aydan DiRocco and Jack Long.

More on Haverford School

In the win over Penn Charter, O’Kane and sophomore Evan Large each had a hat trick. Ryan DiRocco and Zeller each had two goals. Single goal scorers were Willis Burt, Leary, Aydan DiRocco, Nolen, Gavin Cooper and Flinn.

That was followed by a 17-10 win at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Aydan DiRocco had four goals and four assists. Ryan DiRocco added two goals and five assists. O’Kane had two goals and three assists, while Leary, Finn Lawrence and Long also had two goals. Zeller and Large had a goal and an assist while Flinn scored a goal.

McCarthy and Griff Meyer were a combined 15-of-29 on faceoffs and McCarthy had 10 ground balls, while Murphy made 14 saves.

That win clinched at least a tie for the Inter-Ac crown.

Haverford School vs. SCHA - PSD Highlights by Marc Narducci

Big win for GA

Germantown Academy earned its first Inter-Ac win last week, defeating Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, 13-10.

Senior Rocco Ippoldo, a Franklin and Marshall commit, had four goals and two assists. Senior Josh Gibbs (Trinity) added three goals and three assists, while Anthony Lara scored twice. Freshman Paul Rambo and senior Dean Shacklett (Ohio Wesleyan) each had a goal and an assist. Senior Mac Jordan scored a goal and sophomore Jack Donovan made 15 saves.

“I am really proud of the effort our guys put forth in our game against SCH,” GA coach Billy McKinney said. “They have a lot of talented players and are able to score in bunches and they were pretty dominant at the face off, but Jack Donovan had a huge game in the net for us, making 15 saves, which helped balance things out.”

The defense also made some key timely plays.

“Our defense’s ability to make stops allowed us to run down the field and score in transition,” McKinney said. “Rocco Ippoldo and Josh Gibbs combined for seven goals and five assists, and a lot of their success was fueled by our defensive personnel’s ability to get them the ball in scoring position. It was a total team effort.”

That was followed by a strong performance in an 8-6 loss to Malvern Prep. Ippoldo had a hat trick, while Gibbs contributed two goals and one assist. The other goal was scored by Jordan. Donovan recorded 18 saves.

Malvern Prep continues to surge

Malvern Prep solidified its spot in second place with last week’s 13-6 home win over Episcopal Academy. Senior Cornell commit AJ Nikolic had four goals and two assists while junior Ennis Udo (Brown) added four goals. Sophomore Michael Ortlieb and senior William Irish had a goal and two assists.

The Friars then beat Germantown Academy, 8-6 as junior Nick Wehmeyer won 12 of 18 faceoffs and senior goalie Christopher Rabena made nine saves. Udo scored a hat trick, while sophomores Ortlieb and Owen Mears scored twice. Senior Dylan O’Connor scored one goal.

The Friars then lost a 10-9 decision on Saturday at perennial Delaware state power Salesianum.

Bounce-back win for Episcopal Academy

Following a 13-6 loss to Malvern Prep, Episcopal Academy rebounded with a 13-6 win over Penn Charter.

In the loss to Malvern Prep, six different players scored – TJ Lamb, Charlie Kraftson, Eddie Jones, Lucas Slate, John Malone and Jake Manion. Jack Guido made nine saves and Luke Tabasso had four.

Leading the win over Penn Charter was Slate, a senior Richmond commit, who had four goals. Lamb added three goals and two assists. Nick Wolff contributed two goals and two assists and Jones scored twice. Kraftson and Pat McDermott were the other goal scorers. Will Hohn was 11-for-17 on faceoffs, while Guido made six saves and Tabasso added two.