Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 7/31/09
The top-seeded Duke’s Lacrosse Club, ranked as the No. 1 club team in the country by Inside Lacrosse, staved off a major challenge last 
weekend to win its fourth straight Champ Camp crown.
Patrick Resch, a rising senior at La Salle, scored the game-winner late in the game off a feed from Eric Warden (Garnet Valley, rising senior) as the Duke’s downed Belax (Baltimore Elite Lacrosse Club), 6-5, at Johns Hopkins University. The goal, which came off a slow fast-break, capped a brilliant rally by the Duke’s – who trailed twice by three goals in the first half.
The Duke’s (9-0 overall) were down, 3-0, early in the game, but cut the deficit to 3-1 when Andrew Mongeluzzi (Lower Merion, rising senior) scored off a feed from Jordan Wolf (Lower Merion, rising senior). Belax took a 4-1 lead, but Kevin Forster ( La Salle, rising junior) converted off a pass from defenseman Ryan Kilpatrick (Salesianum, DE, rising junior) to close the gap to 4-2 at halftime.
Behind clutch goaltending from Andrew O’Connell (Malvern Prep, rising senior), who made 12 saves, the Duke’s continued the rally in the second half. Defenseman Tim Souders (Emmaus, rising senior) went coast-to-coast to make it 4-3 and Forster tallied his second off a strong individual effort to tie it.
Rich Rambo (Abington, rising senior) put the Duke’s ahead, but Belax tied it, setting up the heroics by Resch.
Duke’s LC has now reached the finals at Champ Camp – considered as the top summer tourney on the boys’ club scene – for the sixth straight year.
Duke’s head coach Ebe Helm cited the goaltending of O’Connell as the key. Hank Altschuler (Lower Merion, rising junior) and Conor Kelly (Haverford School, rising junior) also contributed in the goal through the tourney.
At attack, Helm said Duke’s was led by Wolf, Forster and Shane Sturgis (Downingtown East, rising senior). The midfield showed a strong transition game and was paced by Rambo, Warden, Austin Rogusky (Conestoga, rising senior) and Bobby Hill (Malvern Prep, rising senior) on the offensive end. Resch, Mark Jackson (Malvern Prep, rising senior), Adam Yee (Penncrest, rising senior) and Alex Kuehner (Emmaus, rising senior) led the defensive midfield. Joey McCallion (Haverford School, rising junior) was a key on face-offs.
On defense, Souders and Stephen O’Hara (St. Joseph’s Prep) were lock-downs all tourney and Alex Beatty (Haverford School), rising junior) was strong.
The Duke’s LC coaches were Helm, Mike Mackrides, Ron Forster, Jason Christmas and Bob Mongeluzzi.
Duke’s 2 squad wins bracket, reaches quarterfinals
The Group EE champion Duke’s 2 squad (6-2 overall) suffered a heartbreaking 9-8 loss to Belax in the quarterfinals, after taking a 7-2 lead. The Duke’s 2 got strong goaltending all tourney long by Andrijko Andrusko (Holy Ghost Prep, rising senior) and Dustin Keen (Downingtown West, rising junior).
The attack was led by Ryan Ambler (Abington, rising sophomore), Rich Kaiser (Unionville, rising junior), Kurtis Kaunas (Parkland, rising junior) and Chas Robino (Tower Hill School, DE, rising junior). The midfield was paced by Matt Rambo (Abington, rising freshman), Eric Gartner (Great Valley, rising junior), Nate Hare (Upper Merion, rising senior) and Jeff Heath (St. Joseph’s Prep, rising junior). The defense was anchored by Ben Karr (Conestoga, rising junior), Jesse Horn (Great Valley, rising junior), Alex Warden (Garnet Valley, rising junior) and Chris Panichelli (Henderson, rising junior).
Duke’s 2 coaches were Joe Vetrone, Chris Fallon and Marty Kupprion.
Leave a Reply