Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 11/14/18
Josh Gallia fed fellow sophomore Braeden Lange for the game-winner with 8 seconds to play as Shipley School defeated Jersey Thunder Elite 2019, 7-6, to win the Varsity (High School) Division championship last weekend at the Lehigh Lacrosse King of the Mountain.
Both Shipley and Jersey Thunder entered the title game undefeated. It was a back and forth battle that saw multiple lead changes. The goalie play of Kyle Mezrow and Nate Yi and the offensive play of Randall Brown (3 goals, 1 assist) kept the game tight.
With less than a minute remaining and the score knotted at 6, sophomore Jake McCarthy won a huge faceoff and ran the ball to X to pass it off to Gallia. Shipley looked to hold the ball for the final shot and Gallia drove right from X, curled back to his left and found Lange cutting off his defenseman’s back for a tight finish inside.
Shipley, coming off a big fall league title, won its three pool play games, toppling Southern Lehigh 10-3, Allentown Central Catholic, 7-5, and Hunterdon Central (NJ) 8-1.
Shipley was led on defense by Spencer Dee, TJ McCabe, Tom Kim, Hunter Gallo, Egan Butala, and Tyler Drake, and goalie play of Yi and Mezrow. It also got standout faceoff play by Jake McCarthy and Henry Reed, strong offensive output by Luke Grayum (7g, 10a), Brown (7g,2a), Lange (5g, 3a), Gallia (4g, 5a), Augie Gehret (3g, 2a), Jake Oleyniczak (2g, 2a), Ben Aschkenasy (1g, 5a), and San Scurto-Davis, and dominant ground ball control from Reed and Drake.
