Susquehannock, West York will share YAIAA boys' lacrosse title
Coming off their lone division loss of the season, the Susquehannock boys' lacrosse team returned to its Warrior way of play.
With a chance to clinch a share of the division crown on senior day, the Warriors leaned on its experience-laden team to capture an 8-6 victory over Dallastown.
"The Warrior way is hard work and being physical," Susquehannock senior goalie Shane Silk said. "We have a motto on the team of, 'I'll do it.' Just a team effort."
While the Warriors finished atop the YAIAA with a 10-1 league record, they tied with West York which held an identical 10-1 mark. The Bulldogs beat York Suburban Tuesday night by a final score of 12-8 to keep things deadlocked atop the YAIAA at the end of the regular season.
Susquehannock (10-1 Division, 11-2 overall) and Dallastown (8-3 Division, 12-3 overall) each played solid games as the contest lived up to its billing.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game and we just needed to step up," Susquehannock head coach Russ LeBlanc said. "Dallastown is a really good team and they have a lot of great players. Defensively they are tough. They haven't allowed a lot of goals all season."
The score was tied four different times, with the last one coming with 11 minutes to play in the game following Cade Gold's third goal of the game for Dallastown.
Gold's goal tied the game at 5-5, but the Warriors answered quickly.
Susquehannock senior Collin Riley found the net for the second time in the game with 9:36 to play when his bouncing shot hopped over the left shoulder of Dallastown goalie Jack Marks, giving the home team a lead it wouldn't relinquish.
The Warriors extended the lead to 7-5 on Aiden Kirkendall's second goal of the night, but the Wildcats inched closer on Andrew Kvasnovsky's marker at 6:18.
But, the Warriors rode their defense the rest of the way and Silk made crucial saves late in the contest to hold off the Wildcats. Silk finished with 14 saves.
"Shane steps up in big games and he's the backbone of the defense and he really played well," LeBlanc said.
Said Silk, "We knew we had to be pretty quick getting back to the hole and dropping out and playing inside out. It was a lot of team effort. We played really hard and I can't give my defense enough credit for how they played."
Silk is one of 14 seniors on a roster of 23, who had set a division title amongst their goals.
"We knew the division was tough this year," LeBlanc said. "It has a lot of really good teams and I'm just really pleased with our guys. They have worked really hard."
Marks finished with 17 saves for Dallastown.
"It was exactly the game I expected," Dallastown head coach Phil Bates said. "Both are well-coached teams that play well. They are probably the No. 1 offense point wise and we are the No. 1 defense as far as giving up points."
In a bonus to the varsity game, the JV game featured two undefeated teams in division play with Dallastown coming away with a 9-6 win.
"That was really great," LeBlanc said. "It ended up being a JV championship and it was kind of neat the way it worked out for them."
Susquehannock 8, Dallastown 6
Dallastown2112—6Susquehannock2123—8
Dallastown goals — Cade Gold 3, Andrew Kvasnovsky, Ser Greene, Brian Prats.
Dallastown assists — Max Lohss 2, Braven Morris.
Susquehannock goals — Aiden Kirkendall 3, Collin Riley 2, Jack Allred 2, Dorian Faster.
Susquehannock assists — Zach Orner 2, Kirkendall.
Shots on goal — D 38, S 30
Goalies — DT, Jack Marks (17 saves), S, Shane Silk (14 saves).
JV — Dallastown 9, Susquehannock 6