DENVER – Allentown Central Catholic was far from a shoo-in to be in Tuesday’s PIAA 2A Boys Lacrosse semifinals. The Vikings had to go through Mars in the quarterfinals, which is no easy task against one of the state’s premier programs.
Sure, Central Catholic has some history and some really explosive playmakers, but there was still sort of an underdog mentality going into their meeting with Trinity, who felt the same way, having never been to a state semifinal in program history.
Perhaps those emotions led to some first half nerves between both sides, allowing goals to flow left and right at Cocalico High School for a state championship appearance on the line. In the end, Trinity edged out the District 11 champs, 17-13, in a competitive semifinal in front of full bleachers of fans at the Cocalico turf complex.
But, it certainly didn’t start in Trinity’s favor. Goals by Alex Karetsos, Tommy McGorry, Jack Restino and Luke Walter, all within the first 2:32 made it seem like the game may be one-sided by halftime.
Trinity only put one on the board in the midst of the onslaught, making it 4-1 in favor of the Vikings.
Then, the Shamrocks pounced back. Grant Truong scored back-to-back goals, forcing Allentown Central Catholic to call timeout with 4:21 left in the first quarter. That didn’t seem to slow down a relentless Trinity offense, who scored two more after the timeout, swinging the game into the Shamrocks’ favor, 5-4, at the end of the first quarter.
It was just an unbelievably fast game. 2 minutes, 49 seconds was the most amount of time without a goal through the first 12 minutes. Every time one time had something, the other matched it.
“Our idea was to slow the game down when we can,” said Allentown head coach Willy Odenthaw. “Defensively, you give up 17 goals, you’re supposed to lose.”
The game was tied three times after that 5-4 Trinity lead, but the Vikings could never reclaim the lead throughout the game.
Tate Shoemaker led off the second quarter with a goal, tying it at 5-5. Jack Restino went on to score later in the second to tie it at 6-6. James McCarthy did the same at 7-7. Then, it started to slip away from the Vikings.
Peyton Crecilius, Owen Morret and Grant Truong all scored with 2:07 of each other, running the second quarter clock to 1:29, and finished up with a halftime lead of 10-7.
Keenan Milachak and Tate Shoemaker scored back-to-back goals to begin after the halftime break, but Trinity couldn’t seem to be stopped.
By the time the fourth quarter started, you could start to feel it for Trinity. “It” being a potential trip to Panzer Stadium on Saturday for the PIAA 2A Boys Lacrosse Championship.
Trinity poured on three more fourth-quarter goals to the Vikings’ two, cementing their four-goal lead to go to Saturday’s final against the winner between Twin Valley and Marple Newtown, a 6 p.m. start at Perkiomen Valley High School.
A lot of people wrote off the Vikings in this PIAA 2A bracket, having to get through District 1 second-place finisher Bishop Shanahan, and WPIAL champ, defending state champion Mars. But, they got to the state semifinals and competed, and there’s something to be said about that.
“Listen, I’m proud of them,” said Odenthaw. “But you know, we set our goal to win a state championship every year, and to get better. And I think we got better late in the season.
“They work their tail off all year, and sometimes you come up short. We came up short tonight.”
