Moon Township, Pa. – The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) hosted its WPIAL/UPMC Sports Medicine Boys’ Lacrosse Championships on Wednesday and Thursday at Joe Walton Stadium on the campus of Robert Morris University. In 3A, Mt. Lebanon reached the mountaintop for the first time in eight years, while Mars won its seventh consecutive 2A title.
Mt. Lebanon is now a five-time WPIAL boys’ lacrosse winner, which is the second most in league history. The Blue Devils were previously victorious in 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015, and had played in four other championship games since the 2015 title, including last year’s.
Mars currently holds the longest active streak for consecutive WPIAL championships in a boys’ team sport with seven straight titles. The Fightin’ Planets’ streak began in 2016 with a 15-10 victory over Hampton, and the seven-season run pushed the school to the top spot in WPIAL boys’ lacrosse titles.
The top three teams in 2A and top two teams in 3A have qualified for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Boys’ Lacrosse Championships, which will begin with first round games on Tuesday, June 6. The championship games will be held at Panzer Stadium on the campus of Penn State University on Saturday, June 17.
3A RECAP
In a rematch of last year’s WPIAL 3A Boys’ Lacrosse Championship Game, second-seeded Mt. Lebanon outscored fourth-seeded Shady Side Academy, 6-2, in the second half to win 10-8 in the final contest of Thursday’s three-game set.
Mt. Lebanon (16-5, 6-1) entered the halftime break facing a 6-4 deficit, and that gap grew in the third quarter when Shady Side Academy (9-12, 6-1) sophomore midfielder Seamus Riordan scored his second goal of the game with 10:05 left in the frame. However, that would be the last goal the Bulldogs would score until the 3:08 mark of the fourth quarter, as the Blue Devils answered with a 5-0 run between the third and fourth stanzas to take control.
The second seed began its comeback with 9:48 left in the third quarter when junior attack Luke Prezioso finished a feed from sophomore midfielder Keegan Green. Another junior, Sullivan Kish, set up sophomore midfielder Joseph Hetz to make it 7-6 with 7:25 on the clock, and then senior attack Brady Westbrook scored the tying goal with 10:22 remaining off a pass from junior attack Miles Halter. Halter then set up Hetz three minutes later to give Mt. Lebanon an 8-7 lead, and Prezioso added his second goal of the night to make it 9-7 with 5:22 to play.
Shady Side Academy junior midfielder Mac Mohn brought his team within one with an unassisted goal at the 3:08 mark, but a tally from the Blue Devils’ Green just 18 seconds later was enough to ward off the Bulldogs comeback attempt.
Mt. Lebanon was led in scoring by junior midfielder Fred LaSota, who tallied a game-high four goals with three coming in the first quarter. Prezioso added two goals and an assist, while Hetz netted a pair of tallies. Junior midfielder Bernard McAuley went 14-of-21 on faceoffs and collected five groundballs. Senior goalkeeper Samuel Myers made 10 saves in the win.
Shady Side Academy had three players with two goals each in Mohn, Riordan, and sophomore midfielder Emmerich Braham. Junior midfielder Jamie Rhoades had three groundballs for the Bulldogs, and classmate Nicholas Anderson made eight saves between the sticks.
This was a rematch of last year’s WPIAL championship game, which Shady Side Academy won in overtime, 11-10.
Mt. Lebanon topped seventh-seeded Seneca Valley (17-7) and sixth-seeded Upper St. Clair (18-5) to make it to Joe Walton Stadium, while Shady Side Academy was victorious over fifth-seeded Pine-Richland (20-10) and top-seeded Peters Township (19-7). The Blue Devils will host the District X champion in the PIAA Championships, and the Bulldogs will be on the road to a team from District III or District VI.
2A RECAP
Top-seeded Mars continued its reign of the 2A classification, using a 9-3 second-half run to defeat second-seeded South Fayette, 16-7, in the WPIAL 2A Boys’ Lacrosse Championship Game on Wednesday.
Mars (19-2, 10-0) held a three-goal edge over South Fayette (18-1, 10-0) at the break, and proceeded to score the first five goals of the third quarter to take control of the game. The run started with unassisted tallies from juniors Jack McKenzie and Vincenzo Grieco, then Grieco found sophomore attack Ian Coulter to put the Fightin’ Planets up 10-4 with 8:51 to play in the frame. Six seconds later, senior attack Jack Dunham finished a McKenzie feed to extend the gap to 11-4, and Grieco scored with 2:24 on the clock from an Ian Edinger pass to complete the run.
The Lions trailed by one midway through the second quarter after receiving two goals from senior midfielder Spence Hondru and one from freshman attack Drew Welhorsky. Welhorsky’s man-up goal off a feed from junior attack Owen Makar brought South Fayette to a 7-4 deficit at halftime.
Grieco led all players with eight points on five goals and three assists, while Coulter, Dunham, senior midfielder Kyle McEwen, and junior midfielder Ryan Blake had two goals each. McKenzie was 21-of-27 at the X and collected 15 groundballs, while junior long-stick midfielder Domenic Caldwell caused a pair of turnovers. Senior goalkeeper Jonathan Grieco made one save between the posts.
Welhorsky finished with a hat trick for the Lions, and Hondru (2), senior attack Dom Oliastro, and sophomore attack Raj Sainani also scored goals. Senior defenseman Aidan Burns caused a game-high six turnovers and tallied five groundballs. Sophomore goalkeeper Travis Watkins made 14 saves.
In the third-place consolation game on Wednesday, fourth-seeded Hampton topped third-seeded Penn-Trafford, 14-8, to punch District VII’s final spot to the PIAA Championships.
Mars defeated ninth-seeded Moon (17-1) and Hampton (18-4) to qualify for the final, while South Fayette were winners against seventh-seeded Quaker Valley (15-9) and Penn-Trafford (18-9). In the PIAA Championships, the Fightin’ Planets will host the fourth-seeded team from District III, the Lions will travel to play the top seed from District X, and the Talbots will go on the road to play the top seed from District III.
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