Dave Byrne was in Neffsville on Tuesday night, where Manheim Township took on Mt. Lebanon in a state boys’ lacrosse semifinal game. This match belonged to the host Blue Streaks, who took care of Mt. Lebanon and advanced to Friday’s state championship game against LaSalle. Here’s Dave’s story from Wednesday’s New Era:
The sting of last year’s 16-14 loss to Mt. Lebanon in the Keystone Cup semifinals was still fresh — an imperfect end to what had been a perfect season.
Manheim Township, champions of the Central Pennsylvania Scholastic Lacrosse Association, dealt some serious payback Tuesday night in Neffsville, when the Blue Streaks whipped the Western Pennsylvania Scholastic Lacrosse Association champion Lebos 11-4 in a state semifinal game.
The win earns Township (19-8 overall) a spot in the Keystone Cup championship game for the second time in three years; the Streaks fell to Malvern Prep in the 2006 finale.
Township — which has won seven games in a row and 14 of its last 15 — will play LaSalle, a 4-3 winner over Malvern Prep in the Eastern Pennsylvania Scholastic Lacrosse Association title game on Tuesday.
The championship game is set for Friday at 7:30 p.m. at a site to be determined.
The game was originally set to be played at Millersville University’s Chryst Field at Biemesderfer Stadium, but that could change.
LaSalle (30-2) is the 2004 Keystone Cup champ. Malvern Prep finished its season 21-3.
Township’s win on Tuesday was every bit as dominant as the score might indicate.
Senior All-American midfielder Chris Zielinski (three goals, one assist) scored twice in the first 3:46 and Township jumped to a 5-0 halftime lead and never let up.
“They ran us off the field,” Mt. Lebanon coach Kee Joe Song said. “We couldn’t stop anybody.”
“I think we kept the pressure on them,” Township coach Rich Lefever added, “(and) defensively we played absolutely phenomenal.”
“We had the advantage this year — but I didn’t know it would be this big,” offered Zielinski, alluding to the power of raw hunger as much as an edge in talent.
The Streaks finished with a 36-19 lead in shots, won 11 of 19 face-offs and controlled 33 ground balls.
As one might surmise, Township spent a large portion of the evening in Mt. Lebanon’s half of the field.
Key to that was success in clearing the ball out of the back.
“We felt if we could clear the ball offensively,” Lefever said, “and that we could get some good looks.”
“It was clears,” Zielinski agreed. “I knew once we got the ball over to our side, we’d be able to dominate.”
“They broke our 10-man ride,” Song said, referring to a defensive scheme half street mugging, half full-court press in basketball. “No. 7 (Zielinski) is as good an athlete as I’ve seen … split dodging. We had double teams set up and he ran right through them.”
Still, the Lebos (15-6) did have some success harassing Zielinski and Dan Wertz (one goal, two assists), which created opportunities for others.
“We saw some things that we could take advantage of,” Lefever noted.
One beneficiary was freshman attack Quint Miller, who scored four goals, including Township’s fourth and fifth of the first half.
“We put (Quint) in a shooter’s position, and he did a nice job with that,” Lefever said.
Charged with triggering the Streaks’ settled offense, Conner Dubois dished out five assists and scored a goal, which came 3:06 into the third quarter in a man-up situation — the Lebos (15-6) had a player off serving a penalty — and stretched the Streaks’ advantage to 6-0.
Meanwhile, Township had taken Mt. Lebanon completely out of what it does best — running the quick transition game — and forced the Lebos into a patient, set-play offense — something they didn’t do well as well.
“We did (defend) very well,” Township sophomore defender Austin Schultz said. “We had a couple breakdowns, but we cleared well all game.”
Mt. Lebanon experienced its few successes in a third quarter that saw Chris White score twice and assist on Danny Roman’s goal.
But Township had an answer each time.
Thirty seconds after Roman scored, Dubois came up with a ground ball — off Nick Sizemore’s crushing hit on Chris Lucke in the Lebos’ offensive end — and threaded it to Zielinski, who fired it home with 12.3 seconds left in the third quarter.
It was the back-breaking score.
And speaking of payback …
“We have no preference,” Lefever said when asked if he wanted to see LaSalle or Malvern Prep prevail.
“It’s going to be a tough game no matter how you look at it,” he said. “We’re just happy to have an opportunity to play.”
