Radnor High School | Archive | June, 2015

TREDYFFRIN — Coming on the heels of a summer during which she qualified for both the U.S. Girls’ Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur championships, you had to figure Radnor’s Brynn Walker was going to be one of the top contenders when the high school postseason rolled around. She was only a junior, however, and there were some familiar rivals among the returning seniors, including reigning PIAA Class AAA champion Isabella DiLisio of Mount St. Joseph and two-time PIAA runnerup Jackie Rogowicz of Pennsbury.

But there would be no denying Walker a state title last fall. She fired a final-round 71 for a 36-hole total of 2-over 146 at the always tricky Heritage Hills Golf Resort to end up in a playoff with Canon-McMillan senior Lauren Waller. Then Walker smashed her driver nearly 300 yards on the first hole of the playoff, chipped to 2½ feet then dropped the birdie putt to become Radnor’s second female state champion in seven years.

It was more than enough to make Walker the Daily Times Player of the Year for 2014-15.

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HERSHEY — As he strolled onto the artificial Hersheypark Stadium surface for the last lacrosse game he would ever play Saturday, Alex Andersen knew how quickly some things can end. That was until the first three minutes of an overtime period, three minutes that dragged and lingered and tested his every goalkeeping skill.

“It was a little nerve-wracking, and we knew it was going to be,’ he said. “It was a big moment. And that’s what separates great teams from not-great teams, how you step up at those moments. And our defense really stepped up.’

It was the defining moment of the PIAA championship game, and Andersen, the goalie for Radnor High, survived its every challenge. He made two saves, each a highlight, got a piece of another shot and kept the Raiders involved until Jack Wilson could supply the game-winning goal in an 11-10 victory over St. Joseph’s Prep.

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HERSHEY — The look on Jack Wilson’s face didn’t betray his emotions Saturday.

Wilson gazed at the Radnor faithful that flocked to Hersheypark Stadium, gold medal around his neck, replaying the journey taken over the preceding two hours.

He thought of how his Raiders had let a three-goal, second-half lead slip away, how they watched with trepidation as St. Joseph’s Prep took four cracks at a game-winner, two in the final possession of regulation, two to start the overtime period. Wilson may have traveled back to his attempt as the buzzer neared that was denied by Prep goalie Michael Marchese.

But he also had overriding vision in his head: Streaking down the right side of the goal, receiving a pass from Drew Ryan, catching, firing, floating, scoring.

It’s no surprise that emotions, much less words, were difficult to qualify.

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RADNOR — Seven players scored for Radnor in Tuesday’s 12-5 win over Springfield in the PIAA tournament semifinals. Three were seniors. But most impressively, three were sophomores, representative of a talented attacking class that is not only a harbinger of a bright future but a pretty sizeable contributor to the present that entails the Raiders (20-6) playing for a state title. The age delineations are one of the interesting undercurrents in Radnor’s multi-faceted attack, even if they effectively vanish once the whistle blows.

“It really doesn’t matter,’ sophomore Phil Regan said. “It’s just that you’ve got to play as hard as you can, play for the team and you’ve got to do it all together. If there’s a spot that needs to be filled, you’ve got to be ready to be the next guy up.’

Much of the attention, from awards committees and opposing defenses, gravitates toward Radnor’s Big 3 of seniors Jack Norton and Drew Ryan and junior Jack Wilson. But part of the effectiveness of that trio rests in its ability to create space for others, a talent that would be wasted if there wasn’t a capable corps of players waiting in the wings to exploit the void.

This year, those happen to be primarily sophomores.

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HAVERFORD — If there was any shock in the faces of members of the Springfield boys lacrosse team Tuesday, it wasn’t because the ebb and flow of the game looked foreign.

The Cougars knew it well: What it was like to have an arsenal of scorers firing in tandem, to frustrate an opposing attack out of its game, to execute a game plan crisply and comprehensively.

But for the first time this postseason, Springfield was on the wrong end of it.

The recipe that Springfield had used to claim a District One title mirrored how Radnor ended the Cougars’ chase for a PIAA title, running out to a thoroughly and staggeringly efficient 12-5 win in the PIAA semifinal at Haverford High School Tuesday afternoon.

The win earns the Raiders (20-6) its first PIAA final berth. They’ll meet District 12 champion St. Joseph’s Prep, which romped over District Three’s Cumberland Valley, 19-7, in a lopsided “western’ final.

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LOWER MERION — Jack Norton is an All-American. Jack Wilson is an All-American. Drew Ryan will play Big Ten lacrosse next season.

It’s easy for defenses attempting to muzzle Radnor’s multi-faceted attack to fixate on those three honorifics. But they do so at a steep risk, as Mike Thompson demonstrated Saturday afternoon.

Plenty of factors contributed to Radnor’s comprehensive dismantling of Conestoga, 13-4, in the PIAA quarterfinals at Harriton. But prominent among them was Thompson’s part in a 5-0 first quarter that ended the game before the Pioneers could gain a foothold.

Wilson and Ryan, with their rocket shots that effectively dare opposing goaltenders to put their bodies in harm’s way, deposited two goals each. But numbers two and three in the scoring parade were orchestrated by Thompson, a quick and precise pass to Ryan that allowed the Penn State-bound sniper to exploit a brief opening and a deft feed near the crease to a leaping Wilson who hung in the air and finished over Conestoga goalie John Roulston.

It’s easy to overlook Thompson — or Clayton Proctor, or young-yet-physical dodgers Phil Regan and Kyler Albany — as mere decorations adorning the star-studded trio that has accounted for 159 goals.

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LOWER MERION — As Radnor coach John Begier addressed his team Saturday afternoon, Tom Meyers and Jack Wilson pulled up seats on a cooler as the rest of the Raiders huddled around, standing, to hear the coach.

The prime seats were well-deserved. Meyers dominated at the X in a game that Radnor controlled start-to-finish, and Wilson deposited three goals at the most opportune times in a 13-4 demolition of Conestoga in the PIAA quarterfinals at Harriton High School. The win earns Radnor (19-6) a modicum of revenge after they dropped a 6-5 decision to the Pioneers in the District One semis last week. District One’s third seed advances to next Tuesday’s PIAA semifinal against Central League foe Springfield, which claimed the second quarterfinal, 8-3, over Central Bucks East.

As it often does for the Raiders, Saturday’s comprehensive effort started on draws with Meyers, who was next-to-unbeatable. The senior claimed 17 of 19 draws, repelling the five would-be challengers Conestoga offered, to the point that coach Brody Bush had to concede possession and hope to merely contain Meyers or force a turnover. But what Meyers did with the ball was even more impressive. He scored twice, including a crucial tally 11 seconds after Conestoga finally got on the board midway through the second quarter, and assisted on another goal. The effort represented Meyers’ first multi-goal game of the season and just his second multi-point outing.

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