Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/17/19
Courtesy SuburbanOneSports.com
Brian McCarry had four goals and an assist while Zach Young scored three goals and Lucas Roselli dominated at the face-off X while scoring twice as 14th-seeded Upper Dublin stunned third-seeded West Chester East, 13-10, Thursday in the second round of the District 1 boys’ Class AAA tournament.
The Cardinals (12-7), tri-champions of the Suburban One American Conference, advance to the quarterfinals Saturday to meet sixth-seeded and host Radnor (1 p.m.).
WC East (14-3) was ranked No. 7 by Phillylacrosse.com and won the Ches-Mont League title.
Roselli won 18 faceoffs and the Cards used their possessions wisely.
“Looking at their previous record of face-offs, they used four or five different players,” Upper Dublin coach Pat Lacon said. “We saw all of them tonight from long sticks to short sticks, and Lucas wanted it, and he really got down to the nitty-gritty and continued to fight.
“We focus on the little things, which in the first part of the game is the face-off. Once we focus on that, we focus on the ground ball, then we focus on clearing, then we focus on offense, and then everything starts to come together.”
Lucas Nina-Boesler, Jason Scott, Brett Rama, Jayden Santangelo each added one goal. Jason Williams had two assists.
“One of the big things we’ve been rallying behind is – we play for our seniors, and when our seniors lay it out on the line, everything else falls into place,” Lacon said. “When we have kids fighting for ground balls, laying out, winning face-offs, ground balls, clears, riding really hard, it’s contagious.
Lacon gave a shout out to his bench players.
“Our bench players really continue to keep us rolling,” the UD coach said. “This was a physical game at times and an emotional game.
“It could have gone in two different directions. We worked on keeping our cool and controlling what we can control, and the bench helped out with that. The kids are rallying around each other, and we’re having fun.”
Sam Hoffman recorded five saves in a winning effort in goal for the Cardinals.
For East, Jacob Greiner (3G, 2A), Joe Carozza (3G), Jeff Greiner (2G) and Ben Delaney (2G) led the attack.
Lacon’s team started the season with three defeats and was just 3-6 after nine games. But playing a tough non-league schedule – and beating mighty Academy of the New Church – paid dividends.
“One of the things we talk about is experience,” said Lacon. “This team, in particular, has players that were on varsity last year, but few of them saw a lot of minutes, so one of the focuses was giving these kids experience.
“We had experiences playing some tough teams, we had experience playing the Inter-Ac schools, we had the experience of traveling, the experience of playing in a downpour, the experience of playing whoever really just trying to give the kids experience so they can become seasoned. We had a goal in mind as a coaching staff.
“Everyone uses the cliché term of – we want to be playing our best lacrosse towards the end of the year. That was another one of our goals – to continue to get better. Every practice get better – not just every game but every practice.”
Upper Dublin 13, West Chester East 10
Upper Dublin
Lucas Roselli 2G, 18 FO wins
Brian McCarry 4g, 1a
Zach Young 3g
Lucas Nina-Boesler 1g
Jason Scott 1g
Brett Rama 1g
Jayden Santangelo 1g
Jason Williams 2a
Sam Hoffman 5 saves
WC East
Jeff Greiner 2g
Jacob Greiner 3g 2A
Joe Carrozza 3g
Ben Delaney 2g
Jack Macanally 3 saves
