TOWAMENCIN – The boys lacrosse team is family. From the way they play together, to the way they work at their craft, to the way they support each other.
Before the Knight’s (9-5, 4-5) 8-4 senior night victory over Pope John Paul II (8-6, 8-6), the team held a moment of silence to respect the passing of both Matthew Rinick and the mother of Jake Langeveld.
“I consider this program a family, and our sophomore goalie Jake Langeveld, his mother passed away unexpectedly, and then a short time after that, one of our 2017 graduates, Matthew Rinck passed away, both way too soon,” head coach Rick Smith said. “So as a family, out of respect for them, we decided to hold the moment of silence, and it’s adversity that we’re facing as a team. Mathew’s younger brother Steve is one of our assistant coaches so it’s bonded us in a way.”
North Penn was quick to gain control once the clock started, winning the opening faceoff and locked PJP in their own half until there was 4:30 left in the first quarter.
“We like to maintain the possession in order to get the other team tired, and that was they really start pressing out on us and then we have the ability to go by them. We look at our matchups and we try to go with them while interchanging a whole bunch of guys.”
Senior Caiden Myers opened the scoring for the Knights, finding the top of the net at the 6:39 mark to give them an early 1-0 lead. Once PJP was able to get across the half, they quickly took advantage and netted a goal off a fast break to knot it up at 1. Their momentum was short-lived as it was their only shot of the quarter.
The rest of the first quarter was mostly quiet until junior Emerson Morelli tacked on another goal with 49.1 seconds left, and Myers added another one with 23 seconds left in the quarter to bring the score to 3-1.
The Knights kept rolling in the second quarter, as junior Jayden Davenport found the back of the net a minute into the quarter. PJP responded with another fast break goal that was quickly matched by the North Penn’s AJ D’Ambrosio with one of his own.
Myers would find the goal a third time, this time off an assist, with 25.2 seconds left to play in the half to bring the score at halftime to 5-2, North Penn ahead.
During the halftime break, North Penn welcomed the next generation of lacrosse players onto the field to take some shots. With lots of fans in attendance, the game proved to be a perfect combination of a senior night and community night.
“Our players definitely feed off the fans and we enjoy the crowds that are here, the kids play harder, they’re into it; under the lights, at Crawford Stadium, senior night, community night, alumni night, everything, it was awesome,” Smith said.
North Penn scored twice in the third to the tune of no opposing pressure from PJP extending their lead to 5, with the score at 7-2.
In the fourth quarter, PJP netted an open goal 3 minutes in, but Myers once again found the net, this time off an acrobatic assist from Morelli. North Penn remained in control the rest of the game, only allowing a goal that barely rolled in past goalie Connor Howard, who had 13 saves in the 8-4 win.
“Our defense is anchored by Connor Howard. Connor is unbelievable in the goal. Having a very strong goalie is like having a really good quarterback, he’s always going to keep you in the game. On defense, you don’t want to make mistakes, but he covers up a lot of those mistakes,” Smith said.
North Penn, currently ranked 15th in District One, has made quite the 180 from last years 6-11 team that didn’t make playoffs. Smith credits a lot of that to this years seniors.
“I think that with our group of 15 seniors, every year we talk about write your own book. Be your own group of seniors and this class right now, they’ve just been resilient. They’re won two games in overtime, they refuse to give up even when times are tough, they continue to battle, they just never want to pack up,” Smith said. “They’re blue collar workers, and they want to come to work every single day. They put on their work boots and they just work. You don’t have to be the greatest lacrosse player. We’re going to make a lot of mistakes, but the difference is how you act as a team after the mistake, and picking each other up goes a really long way.”
North Penn will host Crestwood in a non-league game on May 5th, and Pope John Paul II will play away at Harriton on May 8th.
Caiden Myers (4 goals, 1 assist), Jayden Davenport (1 goal), Emerson Morelli (2 goals), Tyler Kronmiller (1 goal), Vinnie Montmore (1 assist), Finn Howard (1 assist)
NP facoffs: Justin Urbinati (9 won)
