By James Boyle
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/23/12
Vail Urso and Jules Raucci each scored three goals as Garnet Valley upset Downingtown West, 9-4, in Tuesday’s District 1 boys’ lacrosse semifinals.
The 11th-seeded Jaguars (17-5) advanced to face Central League rival Conestoga in the title game Thursday at Radnor at 8 p.m.
Downingtown West (20-1) will meet Great Valley in the third-place game at 5:45 p.m. Thursday at Radnor.
“I think we really confused the defense a lot,” said Urso. “We really played our lacrosse.
“We didn’t do that too much at the beginning of the season, we played regular lacrosse. Now we’re playing real Garnet Valley lacrosse. That’s how we’re supposed to play.”
Raucci began the scoring for Garnet Valley with just over three minutes left in the first quarter and assisted on a Brock D’Annunzio goal less than a minute later.
“I consider [Garnet Valley] one of the top-tier lacrosse programs around here. We’re starting to listen to our coach and our confidence is starting to go up,” said Raucci.
Matt Logan scored the first of his two goals with just 2.9 seconds left in the first quarter. Unfortunately for the Whippets, the goal did not translate into momentum. Downingtown West was shut out in the second quarter as the Jags seized a 6-1 halftime lead.
The Jaguars offense continued to score goals while their defense held Downingtown West to just three goals in the second half. Mitch Rose notched eight saves in goal.
Joseph Taulane scored once and had two assists. Robert Raucci had one goal and one assist. Jake Snow also had an assist.
Matt Logan scored twice for Downingtown West. Ryan Hibbs and Tyler Keen each had one goal and Tyler McWilliams had one assist.
“Garnet Valley is obviously a great team… we’d love to win the districts but hopefully this will be an eye-opener for our kids going into the state playoffs,” said Downingtown West head coach Tom Hannum. “I’m proud as heck of our guys… we just didn’t play a great game tonight and hopefully we can rebound from this.
“I know we have a very strong, resilient team that’s very much used to winning, and tonight can be a great learning experience.”
Garnet Valley 9, Downingtown West 4
Garnet Valley 2-4-1-2- 9
Downingtown West 1-0-1-2- 4
Garnet Valley
Jules Raucci 3g, 1a
Vail Urso 3g
Joseph Taulane 1g, 2a
Robert Raucci 1g, 1a
Brock D’Annunzio 1g
Jake Snow 1a
Mitch Rose 8 saves
Downingtown West
Matt Logan 2g
Ryan Hibbs 1g
Tyler Keen 1g
Tyler McWilliams 1a
Alex Cuttic 5 saves
