Photos/Videos: Marc Narducci, Ryan Nix, Jose Rincon Pena, Jack Verdeur

By: Marc Narducci

His team was down three goals after one quarter in the first of two ‘Game of the Year’ matchups in the Inter-Ac and yet Haverford School coach Brendan Dawson didn’t sense any panic.

Host Malvern Prep led the Fords, 5-2 after the first quarter.

The key to Haverford School’s eventual 10-8 win was not allowing the Friars to get further ahead early in the game. By halftime, the score was tied at 5.

“We settled in the game a little bit and they punched hard and put us on our heels,” Dawson said. “We adjusted some of our technique, nothing crazy and we had a good attitude and bounced back.”

One of the keys for the Fords was the play of senior Richmond commit Brody Murphy in goal. Murphy made 13 saves.

“He kept us in the game early, when the score could have been wider,” Dawson said.

The veteran coach said that nothing about Murphy’s play surprises the team.

“He has been doing that for two years,” Dawson said. “He is a rock for us, and you come to almost expect some performances like that and we are spoiled and sometimes people may not realize how special they are.”

Senior Aydan DiRocco, a Naval Academy commit, scored a hat trick. Classmate Connor Nolen, a Duke commit, added two goals. Freshman Conor Morsell had a goal and two assists, while junior Reece Childs (Penn), senior Finn Lawrence (Boston U) and senior Jack Long (Michigan) added a goal and one assist. Junior Evan Large (Air Force Academy) also added a goal. Junior Griff Meyer, a Virginia commit, had four ground balls while classmate Gavin Cooper (Duke) added three ground balls.

As for Malvern Prep, junior Logan Turley, a Harvard commit, led the way with a hat trick. Senior John Majka, a US Military Academy commit, had two goals.

Mackrides pointed out that his team had more than 40 shots and connected on 15 percent and didn’t clear the ball late in the game, which also hurt the Friars.

“There were some things that were very correctable and we’re looking forward to playing SCH on Tuesday and then getting into the second half of our Inter-Ac schedule.”

Neither team wants to look too far ahead, but the highly anticipated rematch will be Thursday, May 2 at the Haverford School. One can book it that both teams have that date clearly circled on their calendars.

Malvern Prep senior attack Ennis Udo was also a tight end/defensive end for the Friars Inter-Ac football championship team this season.

“It’s a lot of fun to play them,” he said. “That is the game you come to Malvern for to play those guys and we live for that game.”

Needless to say, he is one of those players who is counting the days until the May 2 rematch.

Once trailing 8-1, Penn Charter eventually got to within 10-6 with four minutes left in the fourth quarter. Finally, the Friars took over.

While Penn Charter isn’t in this for moral victories, the Quakers fought against one of the country’s top programs.

“Eventually in the game we ran out of gas, but every single game we like to build on whether it’s a couple of seconds, a couple of minutes or even another quarter that we put together,” said Penn Charter senior attack Gavin Michener, a Villanova commit.

“I am always excited to see players that I’ve worked with before, kind of how they develop,” Resch said. “It’s tough seeing them on the opposing sideline, but it is rewarding to see them continue to have success.”

Resch had high praise for the effort of his team as well.

“I told them after the game, there is nothing more I could have asked of them in terms of effort,” Resch said. “Our guys didn’t shy away, and we showed that we can make a lot of teams in this league work and we’re working to getting that 100 percent believe that we can make this happen.”

In a league with Malvern Prep and Haverford School, the other teams get lost in the publicity shuffle, but Episcopal Academy and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy have quality teams and it showed when they played last week.

Final score: Episcopal Academy 12, SCH 10.

It was a typically well-balanced effort for visiting Episcopal Academy, with eight different players scoring. Sophomore Keegan Nash paced the Churchmen with three goals and one assist. Senior Dylan Jaszcz (Penn State) provided two goals and two assists. Senior John Malone (Vassar College) added two goals and one assist. Sophomore Bo McMenamin had a goal and one assist, and single-goal scorers were Colin McGrath, Zeke Kane, Rees Piontek and Trevor Jakuc. Senior Joe Bogle (Villanova) had five ground balls and three caused turnovers added four ground balls and two caused turnovers. Senior Jack Guido (Mercer University) made eight saves.

“It was from about 60-70 yards away,” SCH coach Brian Dougherty said. “Episcopal is notorious for pulling the goalie out to guard somebody, so Hayes saw the empty net and shot it.”

What makes it more interesting is that this was Schreiner’s second goal of the season.

Another big performance came from SCH senior Ross Prince (Georgetown) who was 17-of-19 on faceoffs, had 12 ground balls along with one goal and one assist.

“He is fun to watch,” Dougherty said. “He scored on a faceoff and his work led to several transition goals for us.”

Sophomore Cole Carberry had three goals and two assists and senior Finn Dougherty (Fairfield) had a goal and an assist and seniors Jake Olin (Dickinson) and Alec Tulio (Drexel) added a goal.

There will be no Inter-Ac playoff game this season. The Inter-Ac title has always officially gone to the regular season champ. Last year Haverford School went 10-0 in the regular season and earned the Inter-Ac title, but Malvern Prep earned some revenge by beating the Fords, 9-5 in the championship game.

With no Inter-Ac title game, both Malvern Prep and Haverford School will compete in the National Prep Championships May 17-19 at Loyola of Baltimore. It’s possible the two could meet in this event, which features the top private school lacrosse programs from across North America.