Confident La Salle rolls over Downingtown East in first round

WYNDMOOR – In the PIAA Boys’ Lacrosse Tournament, confidence almost always prevails over hesitancy.

That’s the way things played out Tuesday in round one of the 16-team 3A Championship. Host La Salle scored 11 unanswered goals, limited Downingtown East to a mere six shots on goal, and cruised to a 12-1 victory to advance to the state quarterfinals on Saturday.

“We are confident and looking to build off of this,” said Explorers’ junior attacker Will Trymbiski.

“Our guys did a good job grinding it out early, getting the lead and then things kind of opened up for us in the second half,” added La Salle head coach Jack Forster.

The Explorers (17-5 overall) have won nine straight District 12 titles and will next play the Ridley-Central York winner at a site and time to be determined. The season is over for the Cougars (17-5) and first-year coach Chris Layne.

“We made way too many mistakes all over the field,” Layne said. “Throwing the ball away on offense and on clears against a great team like (La Salle) — those mistakes are magnified about 10 times. They took advantage of us — every time we turned it over they were scoring in transition.”

La Salle never trailed on Tuesday, but it was 1-1 until the final minute of the first quarter when Mason Smith scored off a feed from teammate Jackson Trymbiski. It provided a boost of momentum and the Explorers scored three more times in the second to make it 5-1 at the break.

Three of La Salle’s first four goals came from Will Trymbiski, and the last two came in transition following East turnovers. Defender Dylan Campbell wrapped it up with a score off a rebound after yet another turnover deep in Cougars’ territory.

“I felt good with how we’ve been playing recently,” Layne said of his team that entered the day having won seven of the last eight. “But we came out a little flat. I don’t want to say the moment was too big for us, but we made too many uncharacteristic errors.”

And with faceoff specialist Christian Peterman winning the first 11 from the X, the Explorers had a huge possession edge. With a little help from teammate Keenan Stahl, the home team ended up with a pronounced 15-2 overall edge, which played a big role in La Salle’s 7-0 result in the second half.

“With all of the possessions we got, you have to credit Christian Peterman,” Will Trymbiski said.

“Getting the lead early is a key, especially when we are winning faceoffs like that,” Forster added. “When you have someone like Christian (Peterman) at the X, it makes things so much earlier with having the extra possessions.

“He is the (Philadelphia Catholic) League MVP for a reason. We are lucky to have him. He’s a dog out there and is really good at what he does.”

Midfielder Logan Riggione registered two second half goals, while Dylan Malone, Jackson Trymbiski, Luke Weisel, Darryl Kuriger and Tobias Zweiback each added single tallies.

“We expected (East) to play a zone (defense), but we were prepared for man-to-man as well,” said Will Trymbiski, who finished with three goals and an assist. “We stayed poised on offense and got it done.

“We went against zones the last few games, but we adapted well to the man-to-man and were firing on all cylinders.”

Perhaps even more impressive was the way the Explorers shut down the Cougars’ attack. La Salle finished with an overwhelming 22-6 advantage in shots on goal.

“To give up just one goal – that’s amazing. Our defense held it down,” Will Trymbiski said.

“I think our defense has come a long way since the beginning of the season,” Forster pointed out. “We were locked in even on off-ball play, getting most of the loose balls and getting into our offense. We kind of wore (East’s) defense down.

“We saw (East) and they are a very good team. I thought we did a good job preparing and staying locked in for a week and a half since our league championship game.”

Downingtown East’s only goal came midway through the first period from senior Jake Javadpour. Outstanding senior goaltender Brayden Quinn amassed 10 saves in his last game playing for the Cougars.

“It’s very hard to win when your opponent is playing make-it, take-it lacrosse,” Layne said. “We were battling to try to make it competitive, but both of La Salle’s guys are very good at the faceoff. It’s tough to score if we are playing that much defense.

“Offensively, I thought our shot selection could have been a bit better. A good goalie like (La Salle’s Roman Ippoldo), if you shoot right into his stick, he is going to make the save every single time.”

The Explorers are now two wins from getting back to the 3A Championship Game. And Layne, for one, left Tuesday’s outing impressed.

“Hats off to La Salle. There is no doubt in my mind they can win the whole thing,” he said.

La Salle 12, Downingtown East 1

Downingtown East                         1 0 0 0 – 1

La Salle                                              2 3 3 4 — 12

Downingtown East goal: Javadpour.

La Salle goals: W. Trymbiski 3, Riggione 2, J. Trymbiski, Smith, Campbell, Malone, Weisel, Kuriger, Zweilback.

Goalie saves: Quinn (DE) 10; Ippoldo (L) 5.