By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/20/15
Dan Fisher won 19 of 25 face-offs as St. Joseph’s Prep defeated La Salle, 12-10, today to win the Catholic League championship at Neumann University.
The Hawks (15-5) won their first Catholic League crown since 2011 and third overall. La Salle (13-6) had won the last three titles and 10 out of the last 11.
St. Joe’s Prep advances to the District 12 championship Friday (6 p.m.) against Public League champion George Washington at Northeast High.
Fisher was the clear winner at the X in the battle with fellow sophomore standout Anthony Giuliani.
“I just felt confident in myself and I did pretty well against (Giuliani) last time,” said Fisher of the April 23 meeting when La Salle won, 9-7. “It’s huge, we haven’t beaten them since 2011 since we went to the state championship.
“All the seniors wanted this win and we gave it to them.”
Alex Scalamandre had three goals and an assist and Kyle Scheuerle added three goals while Grffin Fleming contributed two goals and an assist and Peter Gayhartd two goals for The Prep. Mike Marchese had 10 saves in goal.
Marchese praised his defense of Alex Boyce, Brendan McGinn, Luke O’Hara and LSM Zach Snider, as well as Fisher.
“I have to give a shoutout to all my boys, especially Dan Fisher at the X,” said Marchese, a senior headed to Notre Dame. “I have to make the saves, but if we can’t get the ball it won’t work out.
“La Salle has been a thorn in our side. This is a great rivalry. For me personally, this is three years of hard work that has finally paid off for me and my teammates and I could not be happier for me and my teammates.”
“It’s the Catholic League championship so it’s always a different mentality in this game,” said Scalamandre, a junior. “We worked our butts off and did it and I am so proud.”
Cody Mazurek and Kevin Lacon each scored three goals for La Salle while Brett Baskin had two goals and an assist.
“Their guy just stepped up and delivered, what are you going to do? Shake his hand,” said La Salle coach Bill Leahy. “I felt if we had the ball we could win, but we didn’t have the ball. The kid was fantastic,
“We have a super young team – sophomores and freshmen all over the place. You just hope they learn an awful lot and are ready to come back next year.”
St. Joe’s first-year coach Andy German said Fisher was the hero, but that each part of the team made major contributions. “I think it help a lot when you have a kid like Dan; he kept winning the clamp and figuring the rest out. He was certainly a star today for us. He’s been great all year.
“When you’re playing a team like that, that can score like that, possessions are huge. Mike (Matchese) made a couple key key stops in the fourth quarter. I thought we cleared well and offensively we had four guys with two goals and three guys with one. That’s pretty good team offense.”
German said the title is a tribute to the program built by former coach Eric Gregg and before him by Dan Keating.
“It’s really special,” he said. “A lot of this credit does go to Eric; all these years building the program. And Dan Keating before him. We made a couple more plays tonight and a couple of those plays went La Salle’s way the past couple years. We were fortunate to make those plays tonight.”
Marchese said German deserved much credit for a first-year coach: “He has been a fantastic coach and he has taken us to the next level; he led us to this win.”
St. Joseph’s Prep 12, La Salle 10
La Salle 2-3-3-2- 10
St. Joe’s Prep 2-3-4-3 – 12
La Salle
Cody Mazurek 3g
Kevin Lacon 3g
Brett Baskin 2g, 1a
Jared Walls 1a
Zack Drake 1g
Aidan Kerrigan 1g, 1a
Conor Scafidi 10 saves
St. Joe’s Prep
Peter Gayhardt 2g
Kevin Stump 1g, 2a
Kyle Scheuerle 3g
Griffin Fleming 2g, 1a
Andrew Watts 1g
Alex Scalamandre 3g,1a
Mike Marchese 10 saves
Dan Fisher 19 of 25 FO
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