Malvern Prep defeats Brunswick in battle of nationally-ranked lacrosse powers

By Bruce Adams

badams@21st-ceturymedia.com

MALVERN – In a spirited battle between two nationally-ranked high school boys’ lacrosse teams, host Malvern Prep rode to a 10-8 win against Brunswick School Saturday.

The Friars fell behind 4-2 to the squad from Connecticut midway through the second quarter in the cold, drizzly weather. But that didn’t dampen Malvern’s spirit, as the hosts battled back for a 4-4 tie at halftime and then led for most of the second half.

Malvern Prep head coach Matt Mackrides said, “I think the key (to the turnaround) was on effort plays. Our guys executed and did some things well on offense, but we had a lot of ride backs. We were able to get some balls in uneven situations, in broken play situations when we rode the ball back, and were able to not settle six-on-six.”

In the latest high school boys’ lacrosse national rankings by usalacrosse.com (as of April 8), Brunswick was ranked No. 6 in the country, while Malvern (currently 8-5) was ranked seventh.

On Saturday, Malvern senior attack and captain Mike Ortlieb got the Friars rolling in the first 30 seconds of the game, scoring on an assist from senior midfielder Owen Mears with 11:32 left in the first quarter to give the hosts a 1-0 lead. Less than six minutes later, Ortlieb scored again with an assist from sophomore Danny Lucovich for a 2-1 Friars lead.

“Mike’s the leader of our offense, he kind of makes things go on the offensive and, he did a great job today,” said Mackrides.

Brunswick came storming back, led by junior Lucas Garcia, a University of Virginia commit, for a 4-2 lead midway through the second quarter. Garcia, who had two goals by that point, finished the afternoon with four goals.

With 5:09 left before halftime, Mears scored on assist from Jake Bickel to cut the Brunswick lead to 4-3, then with 1:38 left in the second quarter, Malvern senior Logan Turley intercepted a Bruin pass near the visitors’ goal and fired home a shot to tie the score at 4-4.

Mackrides said, “Our senior group really led today – Mike Ortlieb, Owen Mears, Jake Bickel, Logan Turley, they came to play today, they did a good job protecting the home turf.”

The Bruins’ Rick Giordano scored with 10:51 left in the third quarter to give the visitors a 6-5 lead, but three minutes later, Malvern junior Daniel Riely scored with an assist from Ortlieb to tie the score at 6-6.

Less than one minute later, Bickel put the Friars ahead for good with a goal (assisted by Mears), then with 4:44 left in the period, Riely tallied his second goal of the game with an assist from Lucovich to give the hosts a 7-5 lead.

Garcia scored his third goal of the contest to cut Malvern’s lead to 7-6 with 2:11 left in the third period.

Just 16 seconds into the fourth quarter, Friar freshman Joey Murphy scored with an assist from Lucovich to give Malvern an 8-6 advantage. One of the keys to Malvern’s win was the play of sophomore faceoff TJ McDermott, who held his own against Brunswick’s highly-rated faceoff specialist Aidan Diaz-Matos, a Notre Dame commit.

“Our other faceoff guys are more than capable at the X, but we thought TJ was the better matchup today,” said Mackrides. “He did an awesome job, an excellent job of getting the job done, winning about 50 percent of the dot and I’m proud of him.”

Ortlieb said, “(Give) credit to our faceoff guy, TJ. He was facing an incredible faceoff guy and he was able to get us possessions.”

Mears said, “Brunswick is a great team, their faceoff kid is tremendous, but our ability to win faceoffs today was huge. TJ really stepped up. We just kind of rode off him – he played really well, and we played really well, it was a great spark today.”

With 9:18 left, a Brunswick turnover was followed quickly by another Mears goal, assisted from Turley behind the net.

Less than two minutes later, Garcia blasted home his fourth goal of the day, then with 5:23 left, Brunswick’s Evan Meagher scored to make it 9-8.

At this point, the Malvern defense held Brunswick scoreless despite being a man down for part of the last few minutes. One of the keys to Malvern’s tough defense was Friar goalie Heath Jones, a Rutgers commit who recorded 10 saves Saturday.

“Heath has been doing this all season,” said Mackrides. “He did a great job today against a real quality opponent, and I’m proud of him.

“It’s tough to play against a quality, skilled offense, and I think No. 2 (Garcia) is their engine. It’s tough to slow that guy down, and our defense did a great job of accepting the challenge. I think it was a collective unit (defensively), they did a great job.”

Ortlieb said, “Our defense played incredible. Coach (Paul) O’Grady had the guys ready to go (on defense) and credit to all the defenders. And Heath stood on his head in goal.”

With 1:04 left, Bickel tallied an insurance goal, firing home a shot from in close to give the hosts a 10-8 lead.

Mears said “They were double-teaming Jake, but Jake can run through anyone, he’s super-athletic. It was a big sigh of relief (for us) when his shot went in.”

Bickel was one of four Friars who scored two goals Saturday – the others were Mears, Ortlieb and Riely.

Malvern’s victory came on the heels of a tough 6-5 loss to Episcopal Academy four days earlier.

Ortlieb said, “We’ve had a tough little stretch, and this was a huge win.”

Mears said, “I think the key today was how we practiced. We had a few games early this season when we’ve been (trailing) and we put our heads down and we lost, but we’ve picked it up in practice recently and persevered today for the win.”

The Friars’ next big test will be Tuesday against Haverford School.

Mackrides said, “We’ve got to set our eyes to Monday and getting better. … I’m looking forward to our next opportunity to come out on Monday, practice, and get better from this experience. I’m proud of our guys.”

Malvern Prep 10, Brunswick School 8

Brunswick   3   1   2   2   –   8

Malvern Prep 2  2  3  3  –  10

Brunswick goals: Garcia 4, Diaz-Matos, Meagher 2, Giordano.

Malvern Prep goals: Ortlieb 2, Mears 2, Murphy, Bickel 2, Riely 2, Turley.

Goalie saves: Jones (MP) 10, Connell (B) 5.