Playoff Hopes Slim, Aces Lacrosse Squad is Surging

There is still hope for the remainder of the season, and definitely for next year. But the boys’ lacrosse team wants to squeeze as much as they can out of this year, before drifting off and thinking about next year—or graduating.

The Aces own their second two-game winning streak this season, thanks to a 10-5 Central League inter-township victory over Harriton on Thursday. Lower Merion finds itself at 6-9 overall and 3-6 in the league, while the young Rams dropped to 1-14 and 0-9 in the league.

Cooper Eisenhard led the way for Lower Merion, scoring a team-high three goals, while the Aces received two goals apiece from Chris Daly, Max Golden and Craig Markman, and one goal from Ernest Pendleton. The play of junior goaltender Eli Newschaffer continues to be strong, as are the hopes for the Aces to reach the PIAA District One playoffs.

“This is kind of a rebuilding year, because we are a really young team,” said Eisenhard, a junior, who has scored six goals in the Aces’ last two games. “We did a lot of running early this season, because we were lacking the fundamentals. It’s why I’d say we’re definitely a different team than we were a month ago."

The Aces have won three of their last five, but could easily be riding a five-game winning streak if not for a double-overtime loss to a good Penncrest team, and an overtime setback to Springfield.

Newschaffer strides are being made. “We’re really growing in all aspects of the game," he said. "We’re not giving up hope. ... We’re still working towards making the [district] playoffs.”

Harriton got off to a 1-0 lead, then Lower Merion proceeded to score seven of the next eight goals to pull ahead. It was competitive for a half, before the Aces scored four goals in the third quarter, taking command of the game.

“That’s been a problem we have to solve,” Harriton coach Rich Owens said. “But I am proud of the way our guys played. We probably had our highest number of shots on goal today. I’m starting to see the little things come together. We just needed to clean up the third quarter today.”

The Rams received three goals from Zack Fink, and one goal each from Avery Levonuk, David Stewart and Haddon Corbett. Meanwhile, sophomore goalie Jake Marks has been keeping Harriton in games. He continues to make great saves, and plenty of them.

“I think we’ve come a long way in a month,” Marks said. “We knew what we were facing. They beat teams we lost to, so we were aware of the paper deficit. But we did come back when we were down, and that was a pretty big step.”