By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, posted 2/28/09
It was as dominating a performance as Kevin Chenoweth had seen from the Cabrini College men’s lacrosse team.
And from his vantage point in goal, the senior from Coronado High, Calif., had a perfect view of the Cavaliers’ 15-3 rout of visiting Haverford College in NCAA Division III action.
Chenoweth made eight saves – not allowing a tally until nearly six minutes had elapsed in the second half – as the fifth-ranked team in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Poll improved to 2-0 with a rout of the No. 12 Black Squirrels.
“I’ve been here two years and I think that was the best offensive and defensive showing I’ve seen,” said Chenoweth. “It kind of came together. We’re determined, we know what we want and we’re focused on it.”
The Cavs, who bested Haverford, 13-10, in last year’s NCAA playoffs and also beat them in the regular season, 13-8, jumped on the young Black Squirrels (0-1) from the start. Cabrini led, 4-0, after one period and 9-0 at halftime as Haverford, starting no seniors and only three juniors, struggled to create any offense on its few possessions.
Junior attackman Casey Grugan (Ridley) led a balanced Cabrini offense with two goals and three assists while senior Scott Reimer (Henderson) and junior Rich Romanelli pumped in three goals and sophomore Dan Terenick (Ridley) added two. Sophomore Paul Skulski (Garnet Valley) added a goal and two assists while senior defenders Pat Grenier (Ridley) and Jeff Moore (Springfield-Delco) and freshman defender John McSorley (Ridley) put a blanket on the Haverford attack.
“Our offense possessed the ball really well, so that made our job on defense that much easier,” said Chenoweth. “Our defense played great. All the shots I saw were easy saves, in my opinion.”
Chenoweth, who transferred to Cabrini last year after a season at Whittier College (Calif.) and one year at a community college, said the Cavs have made a goal of reaching the NCAA finals.
“We’re going to be disappointed if we don’t make it to the National Championship,” he said. “That’s our goal.. We want to go all the way. We have a lot of good senior leadership; we work hard in practice and I think it shows up on the field.”
Haverford finally broke the shutout on freshman Dillon Hamill’s goal with 9 minutes, 6 seconds left in the third period. Sophomore Max Hjelm (Conestoga) and freshman Alexandre Douglas also scored for the Black Squirrels while freshman goaltender Joe Banno posted 17 saves.
Overall, Cabrini outshot Haverford, 48-26, and won 15 of the 21 face-offs behind strong work by seniors Mike Dolente (Spring-Ford) and Kevin Fahey. The Cavs also won the battle of groundballs, 46-32 and had 17 caused turnovers, five by Moore.
