By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/7/09

La Salle senior defender Andrew Zbikowski has signed a letter of intent to play next year at St. John’s University.

Zbikowski will join three other Philly recruits at Queens next year. One is Duke’s Lacrosse Club teammate Tyler Novotny (Spring-Ford) and another is Central Bucks East’s Adam Bitzer, a friend and former classmate at Holicong Middle School in Buckingham. The third is Hatboro-Horsham’s Jarrett Carr.

“When I took my official (visit) I loved the campus,” said Zbikowski. “The team was welcoming and I know a couple of the recruits that are going there. I think we’ll have a strong freshman class.”

Zbikowski, who will major in Sports Management, recently returned from the Syracuse area where the Explorers played perennial national power West Genesee Saturday. La Salle claimed a 7-3 victory for its second straight win after suffering two overtime losses to Baltimore powers Gilman School and Calvert Hall.

“It was great going up there,” said Zbikowski. “They had a great team and it was snowing and like 20 degrees and windy. But we were able to fight through that.

“It was typical Syracuse weather. I have family up there so I know what it’s like.”

Zbikowski and his teammates did not know what it was like to lose. La Salle, the defending state champion started the season ranked No. 2 in the nation by Inside Lacrosse and won only one of its first four games.

Now, according to Zbikowski, the team is back on track.

“I think the best way we dealt with it was to put the losses behind us,” he said. “We didn’t want to keep them in mind because they would have held us back.

“We just kept preparing for the upcoming games. We pulled it out against Malvern Prep (a 4-3 overtime win last Tuesday) and then we got the West Genesee win. I think we’ll be good from here on out if we keep practicing hard.”

Photo by Chris Spahr

Tags: La Salle