Given the 2020 spring lacrosse season was wiped out due to COVID-19 last year, two Diocesan lacrosse teams are totally making up for lost ground, as they are undefeated heading into this year’s mid-season.
The defending District 3 girls’ (2019) champion is York Catholic with a resounding 22-3 win over arch-rival Kennard-Dale, who is normally their league and district championship hurdle to clear. The PIAA plans a back-to-normal playoff championship season rather than the modified and limited bracket formats that have been used in the 2020-21 fall and winter seasons.
In boys’ play, the Shamrocks of Trinity High School started the season with solid wins over perennial power Hershey and a non-league dusting of Pittsburgh’s Shady Side Academy, a respected lacrosse program that usually plays deep into the PIAA state playoffs.
If you are solid in goal and have a dominating FOGO (face-off go-off) specialist – the ’Rocks certainly have both in juniors J.R. Long and Justin Bordner respectively – you are going to be a very difficult team to beat. Bordner is winning nearly 90 percent of his face-offs and is a top-tier Division I college prospect, meaning Trinity pummels teams with possession time and abundant scoring chances. In the state rankings, the ’Rocks are ranked eighth at the season’s midway point.
It’s difficult to see how these two teams will not be playing in the heat of early summer for District 3 and PIAA state championships.
(York Catholic photo by Bob Chadderdon; Trinity photos by Chris Heisey, The Catholic Witness.)
By Chris Heisey, The Catholic Witness
