The Upper Dublin boys’ lacrosse team continues to make history, defeating Springfield-Delco to earn a spot in Thursday’s District One title game against Avon Grove.
#3 UPPER DUBLIN 9, #10 SPRINGFIELD-DELCO 2
What a difference 12 days can make.
On May 12, in the final game of their regular season, the Flying Cardinals lost to Springfield-Delco 9-8 despite battling back gamely after finding themselves in an early 5-0 hole. It was a disappointing ending to a dazzling regular season, but any bad taste that loss may have left disappeared rather quickly in Tuesday night’s rematch.
With the win, the Cardinals, who make history every time they step on the field, earned the program’s first ever trip to the district title game. It’s the stuff dreams are made of, and this dream is far from over.
“Ever since I was in fourth grade playing in CCLC (Crooked Cross Lacrosse Club) with all these guys playing next to me, we’ve had one dream and that was to make the state tournament, win the district championship and hopefully go on to the state championship,” senior Nick Vernacchio said. “For that to be coming to fruition is just unreal. I feel like I’m not doing it justice. I just have to soak it up more because this is what I’ve been looking forward to my entire lacrosse career. It’s really just unreal. It’s a surreal feeling.”
Surreal might also describe a performance that saw the Cardinals’ defense shut out Springfield-Delco in three of four quarters – including the entire second half after the Cougars battled back from an early 3-0 deficit to make it a 3-2 game by halftime.
“We got out on them 3-0, and a couple of breaks went against us and they scored,” coach Dave Sowers said. “I thought the officiating was great. They let us play.
“Henry (Winbrake) got called for a slash so they went man up, and they scored on their man up, and now it was 3-2. We were struggling a little bit trying to figure things out in the second quarter.
“Once our coaches got ahold of our kids at halftime, they said, ‘Okay, this is what they’re doing to us. We’re going to do this, this and that.’ Again, my defensive coach, Josh Wilcocz, put an unbelievable plan together. I get to kind of sit back and watch the guys do their thing. If you’re holding Springfield-Delco to two goals, and one was on a man up, you’re doing something right. It really was them.”
Ben Abel – who earned the game ball – was one of the game’s unsung heroes, delivering big plays from his defensive middie position when the Cardinals needed them most in the third period.
“Our theme today was called 212,” coach Sowers said. “Water boils at 212. At 211, water is just warm, but at 212, one more degree, it boils.
“Basically, that was the theme tonight, and Ben did that. In the third quarter, Ben made three plays in a row that got the ball back to our offense, and then we were able to just pull away from them.”
Abel finished the game with eight ground balls and three caused turnovers.
“Basically, my mindset up on the face-off wing was really to try to get the ball and harass those guys as much as possible,” Abel said. “I was just trying to make them uncomfortable on offense and trying my best to get it back down to our guys offensively because they were starting to click. That’s my job on defense.”
The players, according to Abel, have bought into their coaches’ game plan.
“Springfield-Delco is a pretty talented team, and for us to hold them to two goals and shut them out the second half is pretty incredible for our defense,” he said. “We’re really communicating and working well as a unit. It’s just trusting each other and trusting ourselves and just coming out and stopping them.”
While the Cardinals were playing shutdown defense, the offense was doing its thing, and if the Cougars thought containing Michael Mullen – who had a game-high five goals in Saturday’s win over Garnet Valley – would be the ticket, guess again.
Mullen scored one goal, but Evan Scott picked up the slack, connecting for four.
“I think it’s just being patient,” Scott said. “A lot of times you want to take the first look that’s presented to you.
“But what we did tonight – we really slowed the game down, played really smart and found the opportunities. When you have the best player in the nation – Mike Sowers – feeding you the ball, it’s real easy to make everybody look good.”
Goals by Vernacchio, Sowers and Mullen gave the Cards a 3-0 lead after one quarter. They didn’t score in the second period but made it a 4-2 game when Sowers found Vernacchio for the score midway through the third. Then it was Sowers connecting on an unassisted goal. Scott’s first goal of the day with a Sowers assist put the Cardinals on top 6-2. Three goals by Scott in the fourth period closed out the scoring, and the Cardinals are proving to be anything but predictable on attack.
“It’s these assistant coaches,” coach Sowers said. “I have the greatest coaching staff there is. I have Haldy Gifford, who won a state title at Downingtown, working with Ryan White, and they design all the sets.
“Again, we designed this new offense and said, ‘It’s not going to be the number two show.’ If you look at Michael’s stats – he had two goals and four assists, and that’s six of the nine goals, but these two offensive assistant coaches I have are kind of mad scientists. They figure out what you’re going to do and say, ‘You know what, you have to step up.’”
Vernacchio finished with two goals while Conor Wall added an assist. Jack Rapine – who didn’t play when the two teams met on May 12 – was once again a difference maker, finishing with nine ground balls and three caused turnovers. Wall had four ground balls and Michael Gillen, three ground balls. Goalie Dillon Lojeski was credited with nine saves, and it all added up to a win that avenged one of the Cardinals’ two regular season losses.
“Coming into the Springfield-Delco game, there’s no better feeling in the world than to beat up on a team that you lost to earlier in the season,” Vernacchio said. “We only get four out-of-league games all season. When we play those games, there’s usually a two or three-week gap where we don’t play any great quality teams like we see out of league. Tonight, we just really wanted to get off to a great start because against Spring-Ford, Avon Grove and Springfield-Delco (in the regular season) – all those teams we started behind.
“Our coaches said if we got off to a good start and had a lot of energy it would be a lot easier instead of trying to come back, instead of trying to chip away at a huge deficit. If we started ahead, we’d play a lot more relaxed, we could play at our tempo, and we wouldn’t have to push anything. The opponent is now the team that is playing out of their element, and that’s exactly what we did. We had Jack Rapine back, and things went our way tonight. I think that’s a result of all of our hard work and energy out there.”
In Thursday’s district title game at West Chester Henderson, the Cardinals (19-2, 14-0 SOL) will face the only other team that defeated them during the regular season – top-seeded Avon Grove.
“I think we learned a lot from our mistakes,” Scott said. “In both of those losses, there were a lot of things we needed to clean up for obvious reasons.
“I think we got more hungry as a result of those losses, and it definitely made us more conscious of what we’re doing out there. Coach Sowers was talking after the game tonight – you don’t get the opportunity to (avenge your only losses) very often in a season, so we’re definitely looking to capitalize on that.”
Springfield-Delco 0-2-0-0 2
Upper Dublin 3-0-3-3 9
About the Author
