Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 6/26/12
The Dukes Lacrosse Club 2015 team earned the second Dukes tourney title of the summer by winning Meltdown top division HS ‘A’ title last weekend.
Carrying a small roster of only 18 players that weekend, the Dukes stumbled out the gates with a 12-6 loss to Bandits Varsity early Saturday morning. After the wakeup call the Dukes rebounded to have two convincing team wins over Raging Rhinos (Michigan), 11-3, and a 11-2 win over Team Philly Rising Juniors.
In Sunday’s semifinal game Dukes faced off against Springfield (PA), the returning division champs. In a tight game that had officials “dizzy”, it went down to the wire with Dukes winning in overtime 7-6.
In the championship game Dukes faced Jersey Thunder Black, and jumped out early to get momentum on its side. Some excellent team defensive plays and groundball transition work, led to multi transition goals of the spectacular variety. Dukes won the game 8-5.
Every player contributed to overcome small numbers and playing roles they were not used to but still persevered to get the job done.
Jeff Kern (Saucon Valley), Matt Petrick (Kennett, who also faced off) and David Wolfson (Shipley) controlled the defensive side of the field with aggression and quick slides off ball.
Colin Reder (Episcopal Academy) helped keep the net empty and start the break. Chris Friedman (Great Valley) and Jace Liszka (Emmaus) did an excellent job as two-way middies.
Ben Wilkins (Southern Lehigh) was injured in the first game.
Team Defensive MVPs went to Ryan Kern (Appoquinmink, DE) and Dustin Buchanan (CB EAST) who dominated groundball play.
Offensively, Sam Fink (Salesianum), Brandon Shima (Haverford School), Zach Hare (Springford), Brady O’Neill (Kennett), Colin Strange (Hempfield) and Zach Ward (Hempfield) provided offensive playmaking abilities and finishing touches at midfield.
Matt Schleicher (Emmaus), Keith White (Methacton), true attackmen, were able to run midfield as well and provide scoring power when the opportunities arose.
Team Offensive MVPs went to Andrew Pettit (Tower Hill, DE) and Evan Wolf (Lower Merion).
