Wissahickon was a winner in Thursday’s second round of the District One 3A Tournament. Wissahickon/Downingtown East photos provided courtesy of Kim Supko Photography. Check back for a photo gallery.
No. 7 Wissahickon 10, No. 10 Downingtown East 8
After two-and-a-half quarters spent in control, the Trojans found themselves fighting for their playoff lives Thursday night.
It wasn’t a matter of being caught unprepared either. If anything, Wissahickon knew exactly what it was getting into after losing to the Cougars 8-6 on May 6, and the team’s nine seniors weren’t willing to allow a repeat performance happen, especially on their home field.
So when a lead that was as large as 8-2 was cut to 9-8 with 3:12 left, the Trojans buckled down.
“Honestly, we’ve been there two or three times this season,” Wissahickon senior Jackson Intrieri said. “Playing Conestoga, Springfield(-Delco) – those were games we felt we let slide and even Garnet Valley started to come back on us. We didn’t want our season to end today and we weren’t going to let that happen.”
Matt Fritz regained control for the Trojans, winning the ensuing draw and setting up a quick response from Wissahickon that ended with Brody Myers scoring to rebuild a two-goal lead with 2:50 left.
“Matt won the face-off which was huge for us, and we ended up with an odd man situation, and Brody Myers scored a massive goal to put us back up two,” Wissahickon coach Matt Conway said. “That was obviously the difference maker there because momentum had definitely swung in their direction, and then he comes back and scores that goal.
“Matt won the ensuing faceoff and set us up to take more time off the clock. He did a really good job the whole game. He was a huge X factor along with our goalie, Scott Pfeiffer.”
A flag in the final minute put Wissahickon a man down on defense, but following a shot off target, it was Pfeiffer outrunning everyone else to win back possession with 40 seconds on the clock.
“They got a shot, and I believe Jake Licata, one of our defensemen, got a stick on it and forced it wide,” Conway said. “Scott won a run out to the end line to get us back possession. That enabled us to kill the clock. He was huge tonight and made a couple of really key saves, and we hung on.”
A successful clear by the Trojans allowed them to run out the clock and advance to the district quarterfinals against No. 2 Radnor on Saturday.
“It’s a little intense with it being such a close game, they scored three quick ones to come back on us but eventually, we hunkered down and were determined to get a stop and win the game,” Pfeiffer said.
Early on, the Cougars would strike first but Wissahickon took control thanks to stellar play from Intrieri, the Ursinus-bound attacker. He scored on a rip set up by Andrew Slackman to tie the game, then with 1:15 left in the first quarter, powered in low and finished to put Wissahickon ahead.
Fritz won the ensuing faceoff and eight seconds later, buried a shot for a 3-1 lead the hosts carried to the end of the quarter. The Ohio State recruit went 15-of-22 on faceoffs but like the rest of his team, had to battle in the second half.
Intrieri added a pair of assists in the second quarter as the hosts took a 5-2 lead to halftime.
Pfeiffer bought his team some leeway with 11 saves in the game and his strong play between the posts helped the Trojans build on their lead starting the second half. In a 30-second span, Intrieri scored a goal and assisted one to Dean Wolfe and a few minutes later, Kyle Lehman set up Slackman for the 8-2 edge with 6:22 left in the third quarter.
The Cougars roared back with a flurry, scoring three goals in a minute as they gained some traction on the faceoff X and solved the puzzle of Pfeiffer to get within 8-5. Wissahickon, which hadn’t converted on its final possessions the first two quarters, capitalized at the end of the third when Intrieri buried a laser of a shot with 6.5 on the clock to put his team up four.
Intrieri finished the game with four goals and three assists in a standout performance even as Downingtown East focused on stopping him in the second half.
“Jackson was huge,” Conway said. “These are the games where you need your best players to come through. He had their best defenseman on him – a huge kid who’s around 6-7.
“Jackson had an okay game against him when we played them two weeks ago, but this time around we switched a couple of things up, and Jackson got more shooting opportunities from up top, and he really finished them.”
Pfeiffer saved his best work for last, with an emphasis on saved. Two plays with his stick and one with his legs added up massively in Wissahickon’s favor in a quarter that was mostly controlled by Downingtown East.
The senior goalie started things off with a save two minutes in but that only served to temporarily stem the tide before a wicked no-look shot by the Cougars’ Mike Ostertag kicked off another three-goal rally for the visitors. Pfeiffer did make a denial on a close-range shot with about five minutes left, but Downingtown East scored with 4:41 left, won the faceoff and scored again with 3:12 to play making it a 9-8 game.
“We came out pretty well,” Conway said. “We had a good opening three quarters. Downingtown East is a really good team, so we knew they weren’t just going to go away.
“We started to pull away, but we knew they weren’t just going to go away, and they battled back.”
In addition to Intrieri, Slackman had a goal and two assists and Wolfe had a pair of goals. EJ Schreiner, Myers and Fritz had one goal apiece while Lehman had a pair of assists.
Wissahickon (15-4, 9-0 SOL) will travel to second-seeded Radnor for Saturday’s District One 3A quarterfinal contest.
“They’re really good,” Conway said. “They lost their first game of the season to La Salle in overtime, and they haven’t lost since. They are going to be quite the handful for us. It’s a huge challenge, but we’ll give them our best for sure.”
The Trojans’ coach wasn’t sure when or if Wissahickon last made it to the district quarterfinals.
“It really has been a season of firsts,” Conway said.
Downingtown East 1-1-3-3 8
Wissahickon 3-2-4-1 10
No. 3 Perkiomen Valley 9, #19 Upper Dublin 6
The Flying Cardinals have been playing their best lacrosse in the season’s final weeks, and they gave the Vikings a run for their money – exchanging goals in the opening period and trailing by just one at halftime, 4-3.
The Vikings outscored their visitors 3-1 in the third period, and that pretty much turned out to be the difference in the game.
“The past three weeks have been a blast,” UD coach Pat Lacon said. “It stinks that it ended this way, but in the playoffs, you are either moving on or your season unfortunately ends.
“I’m just proud of the way we handled adversity and overcame the challenges that we faced.”
Stevie Pileggi and Jayden Santangelo both had two goals while Andrew Sowers and Brett Rama each had a goal and an assist. Will Bailey and Vijay Foster both chipped in an assist.
UD’s Nate Fechter was credited with 15 saves in another strong outing in goal.
Upper Dublin closed out its season with a 12-7 record (8-1 SOL)
Upper Dublin 2-1-1-2 6
Perkiomen Valley 2-2-3-2 9
No. 4 Garnet Valley 17, #13 Pennsbury 3
The Falcons ran into an offensive juggernaut when they made the trek to Garnet Valley to take on the perennial district power. The Jaguars jumped out to a 9-0 lead after one period on their way to the second round district win.
Jack Kalinowski had a goal and an assist while Avery Dysart and Ryan DeZutel each added a goal. Nico Cione was credited with 10 saves in goal for the Falcons.
Pennsbury closed out its season with a 13-4 record (8-2 SOL).
Pennsbury 0-0-0-3 3
Garnet Valley 9-5-2-1 17
No. 6 Springfield-Delco 7, No. 11 Central Bucks East 4
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