By Karen Sangillo
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 6/7/22
The weather was overcast, but the thunder and lightning struck on the field.
Garnet Valley was dominant, racing to an 11-2 halftime lead en route to a 20-9 rout of St. Joe’s Prep in Tuesday’s semifinal of the PIAA Class 3A tournament at Springfield-Delco.
The Jags (19-6) will face Central League rival and defending champion Radnor in the title game Saturday at West Chester East at a time to be determined. Radnor whipped Springfield-Delco, 8-2.
Max Busenkell had six goals and an assist, Ryan Nealon and Andrew Goldt each had three goals and an assist, and Luke Mingioni had two goals and three assists. Joey Halloran had a goal and three assists and Sam DiTrolio won 19 of 26 faceoffs and scored twice. Andrew Keaveney made 7 saves in goal as the Jaguars raced to a quick 3-0 lead that stretched to 6-1 after one period.
“Our defense has been playing really well,” said Garnet Valley senior Sean Gallagher, a defender who had a goal. “I think what’s really helped our defense is that our offense is doing so well. They’re possessing the ball and making really smart plays. That helps the team because the less defense you play, the better.
“Getting the early lead really helped the defense because our defense knew that we just had to keep making stops and our offense would keep scoring, like they’ve done all year. We made some stops. Everyone had a great game.”
It will be the first trip to the championship game for Garnet Valley, which fell in double overtime in the semifinals in 2021 (to Kennett) and in 2019 (to La Salle) after bowing to Manheim Township in the 2018 semis.
“We got to this game twice before and we couldn’t get to the finals,” said Busenkell, who will play at Notre Dame. “It feels so good to finally get there. It felt like we were cursed. We couldn’t get past the semifinals.
“When you get out to a big lead like we did, you’re just more comfortable. The whole game we just focused on playing smart. I didn’t think we had it for sure until the fourth quarter. I didn’t want to jump ahead and lose focus, so I just tried not to think about it and just play.”
It was sweet revenge for the Jaguars, who lost to the Hawks in the season opener, 7-6, in overtime.
“We were thinking about that one,” said Gallagher, who plans to play for Navy next year. “And we knocked them out of the playoffs last year so there’s a bit of a history. It was nice to see everyone step up today.”
The Jags enter the title game playing their best lacrosse of the year.
“We’re very excited, and very happy,” Gallagher said. “We’re really looking forward to it (the state finals).”
The Hawks (17-7) overcame much adversity this season to get to the semis; coach Dan Keating stepped down 3 weeks ago and a homicide investigation was held on their practice field.
Mitchell Lloyd had two goals and two assists while Teddy Felin and Owen McConaghy each scored twice.
“We beat them early in the season and we were thinking about that a little bit,” said McConaghy, a senior who plans to major in English at Fairfield.
“They just came off a big win over our rival, LaSalle (a 7-6 opening round triumph). We knew they’d improved a lot from the beginning.
“At the point where it was 9-1 our coach told us to just go out and play. He wanted the seniors to enjoy our last game. He told us we’d been through a lot of adversity and he just wanted us to have fun, and we did. We have fun out there, even though we lost.”
Garnet Valley 20, St. Joseph’s Prep 9
St. Joe’s Prep 1 1 4 3 = 9
Garnet Valley 6 5 5 4 = 20
Garnet Valley
Max Busenkell 6G 1A
Andrew Goldt 3G 1A
Joey Halloran 1G 3A
Ryan Nealon 3G 1A
Luke Mingioni 2G 3A
Sean Gallagher 1G
Zach Myers 1G
Sam DiTrolio 2G 1A 19/26 FO
Josh Graham 1G
Andrew Keaveney 7 Saves
Griffen Umstead 2 Saves
St. Joe’s Prep
Mitch Lloyd 2 goals, 2 assists, 9/20 FO
Owen McConaghy 2 goals
Teddy Fenlin 2 goals
Jackson Gaffney 1 goal, 1 assist
Michael Schafer 1 goal
Kevin O’Brien 1 goal
Keegan Dunn 7 saves
Andrew Menold 1 save
