CHELTENHAM — Year after year, it’s where La Salle lacrosse expects to be.
The names change, the roles are different, the goals and the stops come from new places but the Explorers expect it to lead them to a Philadelphia Catholic League championship. It doesn’t come together in a day or a week but by the time late May rolls around, La Salle expects to be lifting the Catholic League’s hubcap trophy no matter who is in the huddle holding it up.
La Salle controlled play on both ends of the field Thursday, running its PCL title streak to nine straight with a methodical 6-2 win over St. Joseph’s Prep at Arcadia University.
“I want to spend as much time with these guys as I can,” La Salle senior Christian Peterman, the PCL’s MVP, said. “Winning this buys us almost two more weeks together, so that’s awesome that we were able to keep it going.”
La Salle has won every PCL title since 2016 — there was no season in the spring of 2020 — and has won 28 PCL titles in the last 32 years.
Thursday’s game was played at a totally different pace than the Explorers’ 12-9 win over the Prep on April 23 in the regular season. In that game, the Hawks had been able to score goals in transition and they defended in man, so the Explorers felt like they had a lot to prepare for and sharpen up.
While the Prep did defend in a zone, La Salle was prepared for that too. Otherwise, the Explorers were able to slow the game down with a combination of possession, methodical offense and airtight defense.
“We were focused on making sure we took control of the game,” La Salle senior attackman Jack Trymbiski, who had a goal and assist, said. “The best defense is a good offense so as long as we could hold the ball, work, get into our offensive sets and move the ball, we were going to succeed.”
The Hawks struck first on Thursday when Trot Cush put away a well-placed look off a feed from Mason Warrick with 8:46 left in the opening quarter. La Salle responded by scoring the next six goals of the game and holding the Prep scoreless in the middle two quarters.
St. Joe’s Prep did have a goal called off on a crease violation with 7:10 left in the first half and La Salle leading 3-1 at the time. Outside of that, the La Salle defense was able to keep the Prep’s top offensive options isolated.
“The first matchup we definitely started out slow and they had a couple goals in transition and man-up,” senior defenseman Ryan Vandergrift said. “For this game, we really worked on limiting the transition with the midfielders getting back and limiting our penalties. Less man-up, less chances in transition, it’s better for the defense.”
La Salle was only flagged for one penalty, although so were the Hawks in a game that had the deliberate feel of a chess match. Trymbiski explained that early in the season, Haverford School played a zone defense against La Salle that had the Explorers playing sped up and a little frantic but they took lessons from that which helped out on Thursday.
Will Trymbiski, a junior and Jack’s younger brother, got La Salle on the board with a goal from a tight angle off an assist by Luke Weisel to put the Explorers on the board with 5:58 left in the opening quarter. While La Salle was focused on taking away the Prep’s transition chances, it would be a transition opportunity that put the defending champions in front for good.
The defense got a stop and it was Vandergrift gathering the ground ball and rushing down the field, the pole defender feeding the attack with Will Trymbiski feeding Jack Trymbiski for the lead with 3:02 left in the first.
“It’s amazing, it’s our last year being able to do it,” Jack Trymbiski, who will attend Boston College but is not playing lacrosse in college, said. “We’ve been playing together since first grade, so being on the same attack line as him my whole life, it’s just amazing.”
Peterman, who will play at Babson College next year, put the “ace” in faceoffs on Thursday. The senior was near-perfect on the X, winning 11 of 12 faceoffs and his ability to pretty much just rip the draw clean and initiate possession helped the Explorers attack start to grind down the Prep defense.
La Salle has been able to sustain its success in the league with talented players but also a steady line of contributors that may have only gotten one season to show it. For example, Peterman spent last season behind a fantastic face-off specialist in Stevie Davis but he stepped up in a major way this season.
“We have so many guys that know their roles and fill those roles,” Peterman said. “We have great senior leadership that’s directed this team. We started off with some hard losses but we were able to battle back and get this season going.
“I think it’s a great opportunity that people who go here get. We can learn from the people that are before then be ready to step in when it’s our opportunity.”
Dylan Malone scored La Salle’s only unassisted goal with 45.5 seconds left in the first to make it 3-1. Michael vanBastelaar, who led the Explorers with two goals, scored his first on a catch-and-shoot assisted by Darryl Kuriger with 4:34 left in the opening half as La Salle took a 4-1 lead to the break.
Jack Trymbiski picked up his assist in the third quarter, making a long pass from behind the goal to Kuriger at the top of the offensive zone, which the midfielder turned into a long-range laser for the 5-1 lead. vanBastelaar then wrapped the scoring off a Tobi Zweiback helper with 30.5 left in the third.
The Prep got a goal back on Cush’s second tally with 6:46 to play, but a combination of ball control offense and a rigid defense by La Salle prevented the game from getting any closer.
“Our team chemistry and how we work at practice is what developed our team and makes us work that much harder for wins,” Vandergrift said. “Communication is a big thing, we started the season slow with a few losses so the captains came together and decided we needed to talk to the team and remind everyone that nothing is earned, we have to work for it.”
La Salle also clinched the District 12 Class 3A title on Thursday and secured a spot in the state tournament. A year ago, the Explorers lost in the state title game and this year’s senior group is eager to try and get back and stamp their own legacy with a PIAA championship.
Before that, there was an expectation to meet.
“It feels amazing, especially being a senior to be able to keep it going, it’s a little pressure on us to uphold the legacy of the guys before us,” Trymbiski said. “We lost a lot of talent last year, a lot of big names, a lot of seniors but this year our thing was team chemistry. A lot of guys who didn’t have big roles were coming in and starting this year, that’s a result of working together and staying together.”