BLAX is Done with Great Valley District Loss

A little over two weeks ago, the Spring-Ford boys lacrosse team came out and edged a tough non-league opponent in Great Valley, 12-11. In round two, Great Valley won the battle, and will continue to fight the war. They defeated the Rams, 9-6 in a two-day game that ousted Spring-Ford from the district tournament and effectively ended their season.

"Our hope was to get as far if not further than we did last year," said head coach Kevin Donnelly. "That will be the same mantra next year. There are a lot of different reasons. None of them are acceptable."

The first three quarters of the game were played on Tuesday night. However, lightning struck nearby and the game was delayed for almost two hours before officials called the game to be resumed at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

In the first quarter, Great Valley jumped out to a 1-0 lead after a highly defensive battle. That first goal wasn't scored until about 1:15 left in the frame. But, the Patriots felt the momentum and scored within the first 30 seconds of the second quarter.

Spring-Ford's Justin Kelly got the Rams on the board with a goal at 9:57, but Great Valley answered at 8:08. Then, Stephen Bock dropped one in on the rebound of a shot at 7:47 to make the score 3-2 in favor of the Patriots.

Monzo then scored to tie the game at 3:47 and again at 2:57 to take the lead. He put another one in net with less than 30 seconds to go to take a 5-3 lead. The Rams held that lead at halftime after Great Valley scored one more with 13.5 to go in the half.

In the last game, the Patriots shut down Monzo and allowed junior Paul Major to score seven goals. This time around, the focus was on Major, allowing Monzo to lead the way. Monzo totaled four goals in the game.

"They didn't slide from [Major] at all," Donnelly said. "It's kind of a pick your poison kind of thing. Zach played well again as he has all year."

After the half, Great Valley turned on the switch and it was a totally different ball game. They scored four goals in the third quarter, while Spring-Ford didn't score any. The score was 8-5 going into the fourth, but it would be a full 18 hours before either team saw the field again.

Unfortunately, that didn't help the Rams' case.

"We had the ball in our end," said Donnelly. "We just didn't take care of it and didn't do the things we normally do. I think we were pressing more than normal. They had a night to think about it and get all geared up and we pressed more than we should have."

The Rams came out and did the best they could in the fourth. Goalie and the Spring-Ford defense only let up one more goal in the game, but that effort wasn't enough. The offense couldn't score one quick enough. The last Spring-Ford goal came in with 3:46 left to go by Monzo. That made it 9-6 in favor of Great Valley.

"We never got that sense of excitement together and going," Donnelly said. "We needed that spark early and we didn't get it."

Great Valley will play the second round game against fourth-seeded Ridley today. As for the Rams, they pack their bags and await 2013. But, the seniors will be going on to bigger and better things.

"They've done a nice job all year leading the way," Donnelly said. "You're talking about a team that was unbelievably inexperienced up and down our lineup. There's only about four guys that saw varsity time last year. For those guys to get them from where we were at the beginning of the year until now has been really extraordinary. They've been playing their best lacrosse in the last couple of weeks. That's a lot of those guys leading the way."