Pennridge rallied to defeat Conestoga to earn the program’s first ever berth in the state tournament. Wissahickon fell to Springfield-Delco in Thursday’s District 1 3A semifinal. Wissahickon/Springfield-Delco photos courtesy of Kim Supko. Check back for a gallery of photos: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f900124885
District 1 3A playback game
#3 PENNRIDGE 13, #10 CONESTOGA 8
The Rams rebounded from Tuesday’s heartbreaking quarterfinal loss to Wissahickon to earn a come-from-behind win over the visiting Pioneers, adding another first to a season for the record books by earning their program’s first ever trip to the state tournament.
“This is huge for the program to be able to not only get to where we are – both from a record and playoffs perspective, I think it’s exceeded all the goals that we had this year,” coach Chris Pianko said. “To be able to do it against some really good teams and be able to come out on top tonight against a good Conestoga team, it’s something in the past I think Pennridge would have seen the name on the jersey and come out timid and afraid.
“I think for the first time in Pennridge history they rose to the occasion, played up to the competition and were able to beat one of these perennial teams that’s consistently a good team year after year after year, and it means a ton to both the program and the confidence for some of these kids that are still young.”
The Rams led 4-3 after one quarter but did not score in the second quarter as the visiting Pioneers rallied to go on top 5-4 at halftime. The second half was another story entirely as the Rams outscored the Pioneers 5-2 in the third quarter, 9-3 in the second half.
“I think it was getting back to our game,” Pianko said of his team’s second half turnaround. “I think in the first half we had some uncharacteristic turnovers. I felt like we were maybe gripping the sticks too tight at times, trying a little too hard to make a play instead of letting the plays come to the kids.
“We kind of settled in and got back to what we’ve been doing all year, sharing the ball and really playing some great team offense, not just ‘me ball.’”
Ben Souder had yet another huge night at the faceoff X, winning 17 of 22 faceoffs.
“One of the biggest question marks coming into the game was how the faceoff X was going to go,” Pianko said. “I know we felt like we needed as many possessions as we could get, and Ben had a huge game. It was a huge area that we knew if we were going to come out victorious – we were going to have to win there and get some possessions at the X.
“Ben did a great job both against the faceoff guy they had. They brought a pole in to bring some pressure, and he did a great job handling that pressure and handling the stick checks and play of the other team. He definitely rose to the occasion.”
Souder wasn’t the only Pennridge player to come up big.
“On the defensive side, I thought all of our defenders played a great game,” Pianko said. “Will Howley, Liam Molyneux, Colin Manville and Andrew Horensky as our long poles and Reid Moyer as our short stick D-middie all had great games against some pretty good kids on the other team and caused a lot of disruption.
“Levi Souder in the midfield was huge as he’s been late in the year for us – really winning between the lines, pushing transition. He had a great game. It’s easy to see that in the box score with three goals and three assists, but I thought there were a lot of other plays he made that might not show up there with big ground balls, keeping possession and taking the ball from them with the little bit of the defensive work he had as well.”
Making the Rams performance especially noteworthy is that it came on the heels of a disappointing loss to Wissahickon two days earlier.
“We’d still love to get that one back,” Pianko said of his team’s 10-9 loss to the Trojans. “We told the kids yesterday that the team that wins tonight is going to be the team that recovers from a tough loss faster than the other one, and I think our guys did that.
“It’s really tough to do. As a coach, I know it was tough for me to do, and I can only imagine for the players to come off a heartbreaker like that where we thought we could beat Wissahickon, and the score didn’t go that way, but the kids rebounded extremely well and really started to get back into the way we like to play the game.”
Pennridge (18-2, 10-0 SOL) will host #13 Garnet Valley in Wednesday’s fifth place game at 7 p.m. Garnet Valley fell to #9 Kennett 14-8 in a playback contest.
“We added a few more firsts to the resume for the best year ever at Pennridge lacrosse,” Pianko said. “It’s the first time we’ve ever been to states. It’s the first time we’ve ever beaten Conestoga, which has been awesome. My brother Charlie and I talked about it before that a cherry on top of the season would be to come out and beat Conestoga to go to the state tournament because when we were assistants earlier on in our career at Pennridge, we lost to Conestoga a couple of times in the district tournament. It’s awesome to see – great icing on the cake for an awesome season.”
Conestoga 3-2-2-1 8
Pennridge 4-0-5-4 13
#2 SPRINGFIELD-DELCO 14, #6 WISSAHICKON 1
The Trojans fell behind 5-0 before a Kyle Lehman scored late in the first half. The Cougars opened up a 7-1 halftime lead on the way to the big win over the Trojans.
Wissahickon (16-3, 9-0 SOL) will travel to #5 Downingtown East for Tuesday’s third place game.
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