The La Salle boys lacrosse team storms the field to celebrate its 6-3 victory over St. Joseph’s Prep in the Philadelphia Catholic League final on Saturday, May 20, 2023 at Neumann University. (Mike Cabrey/MediaNews Group)
ASTON >> A fractured pelvis suffered during tryouts had Max Wickersham uncertain he would even play this year for the La Salle boys lacrosse team.
Saturday afternoon, the sophomore provided a needed offense boost in the second half to continue the Explorers’ run of Philadelphia Catholic League championships.
“It’s huge,” Wickersham said. “I was just so down, just didn’t think I was going to have a season. Just awesome that I can get back out there, have fun.”
After La Salle finished the first half of the PCL final holding a slim 2-1 lead, Wickersham scored the only two goals of the third quarter in a span of less than two minutes. He then ripped in a shot for the opening tally of the fourth, his natural hat trick extending the Explorers’ advantage to four.
“I think just one goal led to the next,” Wickersham said. “Got away from a rough start, had a couple bad passes but one goal builds momentum, just kept going.”
The Hawks had their deficit down to two with 74 seconds remaining but La Salle completed its stout defensive performance and claimed its seventh consecutive league title with a 6-3 victory at Neumann University.
“He stepped up big for us,” said Explorers coach Rob Forster of Wickersham. “He’s been doing well in practice. Kind of easing back into things. But I think it came down to our seniors working hard and not wanting to lose, that was the name of the game for us.”
Jack Vandegrift added a pair of goals, his first giving the Explorers the lead for good at 6:36 in the second quarter. La Salle defense, meanwhile, held St. Joseph’s Prep scoreless for just over 31 minutes before Grant Snyder ended the Hawks’ drought with 6:18 to go in the fourth.
“All year, our defense has led the way,” Forster said. “Offensively, we’re a little inexperienced but do enough to keep it on the offensive end. (Goalkeeper) Matty Nelson played great, made some great saves and then Andrew, Jack Duffy, Matty Wills, Logan Missett do a great job down there.”
It took Prep a little more than five minutes to make it 5-3 when Teddy Fenlin found the back of the net at 1:14 but Vandegrift pushed the margin back to three with 50.6 seconds left.
“Prep’s great every year, they have a great team, great program and we owe it to the teams before us, keeping on the tradition,” said La Salle senior defender Andrew Van Stone, a Harvard commit. “And we look forward to this every year. We love playing Prep, they’re a great team. But this is what we prepare for and I think we came out and played a great game.”
The Catholic League title was the 26th overall for the Explorers. La Salle and St. Joseph’s Prep have played in every PCL final since 2002 with the Hawks’ last win coming in 2015.
“(Former La Salle) coach (Bill) Leahy actually came and spoke to our team yesterday morning before practice and that was kind of the focus of the speech,” Forster said. “How big this game is for our program and no matter what talent you have on both sides, it’s going to a one, two-goal game every time and a grind-it-out game.
“And he had just mentioned it’s what we do is try to win (PCL championship) hubcaps, that’s what we do. And kind of just rolled with that today.”
The win also secured the District 12-3A title for La Salle, which faces District 1’s fifth place team in the first round of the PIAA tournament on Tuesday, June 6. The Explorers lost to eventual finalist Garnet Valley in last year’s state opener.
“Just got to keep working, keep communicating, keep having energy every day,” Van Stone said. “We can’t let these two weeks get to us, we need to keep it all going. Even though we don’t have a game for the next two weeks we just got to keep it going – energy at practice and just be ready.”
Wickersham’s first game back from his injury was April 20 in a win over Lansdale Catholic, six days after the Explorers’ first meeting with the Hawks. Prep jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second quarter of that game but La Salle pulled even by halftime then raced away for a 10-5 victory.
“They took it to us in the beginning of the last game,” Van Stone said. “Went down 5-0 but we’ve watched the film on that, tried to learn from that, come out with more energy, communicate especially so those goals can’t happen, we can’t go down 5-0.”
La Salle never trailed Saturday, Paul van Bastelaar’s goal making 1-0 Explorers at 10:21 in the first quarter. Anthony Laber’s tally with 1:22 left in the period knotted things 1-1 but the Hawks would not score again until close to the midway point of the fourth.
“We really worked hard on ball,” Van Stone said. “We watched a lot of film. We knew their hands and knew where to force ‘em on the field so they can’t get easy shots. As I said, communication and energy. When we had the energy, we’re pushing out, we’re pressing out and communication so we can slide where we need to.”
Vandegrift put the Explorers back in front at 6:36 in the second quarter and the scoreline stayed that way until early in the third when Wickersham made it 3-1 off a feed from van Bastelaar at 10:43.
“He drew the adjacent slide and they were in a zone, caught it, had it and just buried it high,” Wickersham said.
Wickersham collected his second goal of the afternoon just 1:55 later to give La Salle a 4-1 edge it carried into the fourth.
“In a tight game like this, the cushion can go away at any time,” Wickersham said. “Any team can go on a run so we just wanted to keep going.”
The sophomore completed his hat trick with 7:31 remaining in regulation, capping an Explorers fast break by rifling a shot into the top of the net.
“Point guy slid, caught it and then Paul who was down low, his guy was staying on him, so let it rip,” Wickersham said.
Snyder’s goal at 6:18 had the Hawks down 5-2 but they could not get another until Fenlin scored with 1:14. Vandegrift answered with his second at 50.6 seconds and soon afterwards, the Explorers stormed the field to celebrate the continuation of their PCL title streak.
“I think we understood what kind of intensity it was going to take from the start and we knew how they were going to come out and we had to match that right away,” Forster said. “Our seniors did a great job of making sure we were ready. And we lean a lot on some young guys so all the credits to them for getting our guys ready. It’s really their team this time of year.”
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