Fords Lacrosse Are Nation's Top Rated Team

They’re special, and could be more special by the end of this spring than any other high school sports team that ever played in the Philadelphia area. That’s how special the lacrosse team is—and could be.

There are tens of thousands of high school lacrosse teams throughout the country—but perhaps no team is as good as the Fords. They’re ranked No. 1 in the country by Inside Lacrosse, MaxPreps.com, ESPN, LaxPower and every other high school lacrosse website and high school sports publication.

Put it this way—Haverford School is so good that the Fords’ second team could beat most first teams in the nation. The Fords have 18 Division I commitments on their team, and they’re 14-0 overall this season, playing quite possibly the most difficult schedule of any high school sports team—let alone lacrosse team—in the country.

What makes them even more dynamic are the sacrifices being made each time the Fords take the field. Yes, that’s right, sacrifices. Haverford School has such a loaded team that its star players take large chunks out of their game for the betterment of the team. What a refreshing, collective concept in what has filtered down into a “me-world” at even the high school sports level.

It’s what has made the Fords so formidable this year.

“I think being No. 1 in the country has helped us out a lot,” said the Fords’ Carl Walrath, who’s committed to Virginia for lacrosse. “It’s motivated us. In the past, we would be ranked, and maybe we beat a good team, we’d check the rankings to see where we were. We know now, and we also know the only place we can go is down. But we’ve all come together. We all know we can’t look at individual stats, so there might be some games I don’t score a goal, but I set up two or three goals. We win, that’s good enough for me.”

Haverford School has rolled over Darien, previously the No. 2 team in the country, and this past Saturday chewed up a surging La Salle team, 13-7, never trailing in the game. There isn’t a weakness on the field for the Fords, and if it isn’t Walrath, or Brendan McGrath, or Joe McCallion stinging an opposing defense, it’s the superb goaltending of Conor Kelly, and the defense provided by Goran Murray, Alex Beatty, Warner Bailey and Will McNamara stopping them.

Now the only thing left for the Fords is to go undefeated. They have plenty of challenges still left, namely this coming weekend when face nationally ranked and local power Conestoga in the Katie Sampson Tournament, taking place this Saturday at Radnor High School.

“We all know each other and we can all depend on each other,” said Kelly, who’s committed to Notre Dame. “But there is a lot of pressure that comes with being No. 1. We’re fortunate that we have enough mature guys on this team that can handle it. What I also think helps is that we’re looking at the little things we do wrong. We know we can’t play a perfect game, but that’s what pushed us. It we work on erasing the mistakes, and keep working on playing that perfect game, we’ll continue to improve.”