By Karen Sangillo
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 6/1/21
If you’re looking for a hero, don’t look any further than Brody Myers.
The Wissahickon senior’s strike with 32.2 seconds on the clock lifted the Trojans to a stunning 10-9 victory over La Salle in Tuesday’s opening round of the PIAA Class 3A boys lacrosse tournament at Conwell-Egan.
“That was the best goal of my career, easily,” said Myers, who had four goals. “It’s the biggest goal I’ve ever had.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever been in states and a state win is just so great for this program.”
The goal ended a game of streaks that at one point was so lopsided viewers believed that the mercy rule could be invoked against La Salle, the District 12/Catholic League champion and the defending state champion from 2019.
Wissahickon’s quarterfinal opponent Saturday at a time and site to be determined will be District 1’s Kennett, which also had its first-ever state win in the opening round, topping District 3 runner-up Hempfield, 15-10.
The Explorers (15-3) took a 2-0 lead on goals by Andrew Kelly and Franky Fix. Then the Trojans (18-5), the District 1 fifth-place team, began to take advantage of Matt Fritz’s dominance at the face-off X (17/23 FO) and Jackson Intrieri’s offense (four goals, four assists), netting nine unanswered goals to take a 9-2 lead midway through the third period.
That’s when the Explorers suddenly came to life.
Kelly netted a goal for La Salle, then Fix put one in. Jack Vandegrift scored back-to-back goals and with 6.7 seconds left in the period, P.J. Oppenheimer scored to cut Wissahickon’s lead to 9-7 – that’s five goals in 5:39.
Jack Pilling scored for La Salle and the score remained 9-8 until the 3:13 mark, when Charlie Huntley tied it up, but Meyers’ magic won it.
“We scrimmaged them early this year and beat them, and even though that’s a shorter game, we had all the confidence in the world coming in here,” Myers said. “We can hang with any team in the state.
“They changed up their offense a little bit (in the second half) and our defense was completely ready for it and they shut it down towards the end, which is what we needed. They’re a great team. We shut them down in the first half and we shut them down in the end when it counted.”
La Salle goaltender Luke Hreshko remembered that scrimmage.
“We told ourselves that we’d bounce back and that we knew everything that they were going to do,” said Hreshko, a senior captain who will play at Hartford next year. “We worked on it all week. But they came out firing and we came out slow.
“Their face-off guy was really good; our guy Stevie (Davis) was doing a heck of a job but we were slow and we paid the price for it. Once we picked it up, we took it to them and that gave us a lot of confidence.
“We came all the way back and tied it up and then every play mattered. Every ground ball mattered. They just capitalized more than we did.”
Assistant head coach Tony Resch served as head coach for La Salle because head coach Rob Forster’s wife was expecting a baby.
“At halftime we just talked about focusing on the little things,” said Hreshko of Resch’s halftime talk. “Even though everyone was flustered, we had to step back and take a breath. That’s when we settled down and we were much more prepared for the second half.
“This loss is really disappointing, but after last year I’m so grateful that we were able to have a season and be out here and playing. That was a blessing.”
For Wissahickon, Kyle Lehman had a goal and an assist and Dean Wolfe scored once, while Scott Pfeiffer made 9 saves.in goal for the Trojans. The defense was led by Jake Licata, Quiinn Fonash, Joey Connolly, Ethan Glass and Alex Solomon. EJ Schreiner, Andrew Slackman and Jason Michaels also were keys.
PIAA Boys Class AAA
Wissahickon 10, La Salle 9
Wissahickon 4-3-2-1-10
La Salle 2-0-5-2-9
Wissahickon
Jackson Intrieri 4g 4a
Brody Myers 4g (GW goal)
Kyle Lehman 1g 1a
Dean Wolfe 1g
Scott Pfeiffer 9 saves
Matt Fritz 17/23 FO
La Salle
Andrew Kelly 2G, 1a
Anthony Rossi 1a
Frankie Fox 2g, 1a
Jack Vandegrift 2g
PJ Oppenheimer 1g
Jack Pilling 1g
Charlie Huntley 1g
Nick Hreshko 5 saves