By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, posted 3/27/08
The last time the Springfield-Delco boys’ lacrosse team had a late lead, the Cougars allowed four goals in the final period and fell to Emmaus, 8-7.
But Thursday night at Cabrini College, the Cougars held onto their advantage and earned an impressive 5-3 victory over Great Valley, the No. 8 team in the Phillylacrosse.com Top 10 Poll.
John Cugini, who scored two goals, teamed with Josh Cavanaugh, Joe Arell and Colin Keegan to give the Cougars (2-2) a 4-0 halftime lead.
The Pats (2-1) did make it close on second-half goals by Jeff Merrill, Kurt Ravenfeld and Eric Gartner, but solid defense and strong goaltending by Austin Kaut (eight saves) preserved the win.
“We’re a young team and we’re starting seven sophomores,” said Springfield coach Michael Friel. “With that, we have to learn how to win at the end. That came back to bite us at the end Tuesday, so it was nice to see them get a win today.”
The score may have been worse if not for the efforts of Great Valley senior goalie Rob Moccia, who recorded 19 saves.
“Certainly, their keeper played outstanding tonight,” Friel said of the All-State netminder. “We made the shots and he kept saving them and saving them.”
Patriots coach Tony Verna said his team lost the game in the first half and got beat on too many groundballs.
“We just have to go back and work on the basics,” he said. “That’s what killed us tonight. We usually pride ourselves on groundballs and tonight they killed us at our own game.
“It goes to show that when you don’t show up with your ‘A’ game it’s going to come back to haunt you. We didn’t show up with our ‘A’ game until the second half.”
In girls’ action:
Lauren McDermott scored five goals and Julie Mineweaser added three as host North Penn (ranked ninth by Phillylacrosse.com) toppled Council Rock North, 12-8. The Maidens were coming off an 18-4 loss at Boyertown… Jess Rothstein scored four goals while Allison Zuzelo had three and Chrissy Pasquariello contributed two goals and four assists as Harriton blanked Lower Moreland, 16-0. Sam Trudgeon posted seven saves for the rare shutout…Springfield-Delco, the No. 1 team in the Phillylacrosse.com Top 10 Poll, opened with an impressive 16-4 rout of host Penn Charter as Michelle Conway scored four goals while Samantha Tajarian and Madison Poplawski added three apiece…Lisa O’Donnell tallied six goals to help Abington (2-0) throttle Central Bucks East, 15-5.
