.png?v=1715407038){kind=logo}
STATE COLLEGE — All week, all day and for every tense minute of the PIAA Class 3A state boys lacrosse championship game Saturday, Max Goldstein had an idea that it was all about to give.
Building since Radnor High fell to Springfield in the District 1 championship match – if not weeks and months and years before that – it was a rivalry that had reached a new level. Respectful but physical, in context but with an edge, it was trending toward what would become an 8-1 Radnor victory that had just the right tinge of bitterness.
That was evident not just in how cleanly the Raptors won, but in how passionate they played, from the first quarter and into the fourth, when they were still attacking, hitting, swiping at rebounds and determined to prove that whatever it was that happened in the district final was the exception, not the new normal.
“They have been a rival for us,” said Goldstein, who scored a goal. “And after that game, we said, ‘We’re not losing another game for the rest of this season. This is our year.’ So at that point, every time we were on the lacrosse field, we knew we had to play our hearts out. And especially coming into this game, everybody was dialed-in at the hotel last night, everybody was dialed-in on the bus ride here, everybody was dialed-in in the locker room. And when we came out on that field we were juiced up and no one was going to beat us in this country today. Sorry.”
No apologies necessary, not after a 23-3 season, not after the Raptors’ third consecutive state championship. As for the explanations, they would be redundant, too, to the 1,000 or so who watched at Penn State’s Panzer Stadium. That’s because Radnor played with attitude, as if the Cougars were out to take something that belonged on King of Prussia Road and will belong there for a long time.
Every loose ball was chased with fury. Every Springfield rush was met with a thud. Every shot, or so it seemed, was just a mile an hour longer on exit velocity.
“That was not your imagination,” said Franklin & Marshall-bound Mason Montrella, who scored half of the Radnor goals. “There was definitely a lot of juice.”
Such was what was squeezed out of the Cougars’ 10-8 victory district championship game.
“I would definitely say that is accurate,” Montrella said. “That fueled our whole run in the states. We took that personally and we were really looking to get them back. That definitely gave us a lot of motivation and a lot of determination to win this game.”
Click HERE to read the full article.
MEDIANEWS GROUP STAFF PHOTO Radnor’s Cooper Mueller, left, waits to receive his medal from coach John Begier after Saturday’s PIAA Class 3A final at Panzer Stadium at Penn State.
Processing your request, Please wait....
