Southern Lehigh ousted
After historic 1st-round win, the Spartans’ season ends against defending champs
In the moment, Southern Lehigh’s Max Johnston said, “it stinks to lose and see your season end.”
In retrospect, the Spartans senior team captain said, “it was a heck of a run that we won’t forget.”
Johnston and the Southern Lehigh seniors saw their historic season and fruitful careers end Saturday at Exeter Township’s Don Thomas Stadium, falling to defending state champ Bishop Shanahan 12-8 in the PIAA Class 2A boys lacrosse quarterfinals.
The Spartans, playing about19 hours after Friday’s first-round win over Archbishop Carroll, trailed the District 1 champs 5-2 after the opening quarter and 7-2 at halftime, then battled back to 10-8 with 3:30 remaining.
They couldn’t get closer.
While the end is always difficult to deal with, seniors like Johnston and Ken Wolfe put the season into its proper perspective.
“We knew they were a great team and we left everything out there,” said Wolfe, who led Southern Lehigh with three goals and an assist. “Our No.1goal this year was to beat Central Catholic for the District11 championship and we did that. As one coach told us, after that win we were playing with house money. We wanted to win today, sure. But the seniors are happy with how we went out.”
Slow start: Playing state games on consecutive days wasn’t an ideal situation for Southern Lehigh.
But that was reality after three weather-related postponements pushed the Spartans’ opening-round contest to Friday. They made program history by becoming the first team to win a state playoff game, beating Archbishop Carroll 14-5.
That momentum did not carry over to Saturday.
Bishop Shanahan (20-1) scored goals on five of its first six possessions to open a solid lead after the first 12 minutes. The Eagles then shut out Southern Lehigh in the second period and took a 7-2 advantage to intermission.
Bryan Rafferty tallied three of his game-high four goals in the opening quarter for the Eagles and Gabe Goforth scored two of his three goals by halftime.
“While we kept the kids focused on Archbishop Carroll,” Southern Lehigh coach Lucas VanEmburg said, “we did our homework on Shanahan. We knew they were very talented and the defending state champs, obviously. No excuses. We did, however, come out a little slow after the 24-hour turnaround. Wewere sluggish and against a team with that type of talent, you can’t come out sluggish.”
The Spartans worked hard through the third quarter to close within striking distance. Then, with 3:30 left, Cooper Nelson scored his only goal off a pass from Johnston and Southern Lehigh was within 10-8.
After a missed opportunity to get within one goal, Shanahan took advantage of the Spartans’ desperation to score twice in the late stages.
Kyle Hoff contributed two goals and an assist for Southern Lehigh. Troy Scozzafava totaled a goal and three assists and Johnston added a goal and two assists. Ben Linden won15 of the 25 game’s faceoffs.
“Ben continued to step up in big situations,” said VanEmburg, who completed his first season as head coach. “He gave us the extra possessions that we really needed.”
“Bishop Shanahan is an unbelievable team,” Johnston said. “They’re very talented all over the field. I think we were taken by surprise by their play at the beginning. We thought if we played with energy we’d be OK but it took a little more than that. When we start to play Southern Lehigh lacrosse, I think we’re capable of playing with anyone in the state.”
Shanahan advances to play District 2 champion Crestwood in Tuesday’s state semifinals at a site and time to be determined.
Playoff pride: Initially, it looked like Southern Lehigh’s playoff stay would be short.
The Spartans (15-6) fell behind Moravian Academy 4-0 in the District 11 2A semifinals on May 21 before they rallied and pulled away for a 16-11 win. Then they played their best game, according to VanEmburg, in a dominant 16-10 win over Central Catholic.
Southern Lehigh’s district title was its first since 2016.
The Spartans also were District 11’s last surviving team. The three other district champs — Emmaus’ boys and Parkland’s girls in Class 3A and Saucon Valley’s girls in 2A — all lost in Friday’s first-round action.
“We definitely played our best lacrosse from the second half of that Moravian game through to today,” VanEmburg said. “Because of that we were able to make it to this point.”
Southern Lehigh graduates six starters, including Wolfe, Johnston, Linden, Michael Smith and goalie Grant Schlosser.
“This senior class really shared a special bond,” Johnston said. “Wewere tight-knit, a family. It’s tough to see that end but we accomplished a whole lot. We were on a district championship team as freshmen and we ended on a district championship team as seniors, going the farthest any Southern Lehigh team has ever gone.
“We’re really proud of what we did here.”