May 31, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

CHA lacrosse finishes with encouraging effort
by TOM UTESCHER

For an Episcopal Academy lacrosse team that has struggled in league games this year, the perfect opportunity to notch the first Inter-Ac victory of the season presented itself on May 15. The Churchmen were paying a visit to the Chestnut Hill Academy Blue Devils, who started their lacrosse program in 2005 and just started to play against varsity teams in the league this spring.

When EA seized a 4-0 lead, it appeared that the visitors were on track towards a comfortable win, if not quite the double-digit triumph that other Inter-Ac squads had achieved against the new team on the block. CHA showed its pluck in the second half, though, rallying back within two points, 7-5, in the middle of the fourth quarter before the Churchmen wrapped up a 9-5 victory.

Episcopal improved its overall record to 9-11, while the Blue Devils’ season came to a close at 6-7 overall, and with an 0-5 mark in a single round of Inter-Ac games.

“I’m proud of the team,” CHA Coach Kevin Plummer said after what was the Devils’ closest league game, by far. “Penalties hurt us, and we didn’t maintain possession very well. Obviously, being down 4-0 at halftime also hurt us. But in the second half we came out and played with heart, and we put up the five goals that we’d said we wanted at halftime.”

The early indications were that CHA could hang with the Churchmen, as neither squad scored during the first seven minutes, and after the icebreaker by EA’s Richard Craft, it was still a 1-0 contest at the quarter. Hit by several penalties early in the second round, EA recovered and began to pull away later in the period, sandwiching two goals by Drew Green around a man-up marker by Bob Fitzpatrick to enjoy a 4-0 advantage at the interlude.

Plummer said that in the halftime huddle, “The seniors did most of the talking. It was their last game, and they made all the right points.”

Responding to their peers’ prodding, junior Mike Marino and sophomore Dante LaRuffa hooked up for the Devils’ first goal less than two minutes into the third quarter, with Marino’s feed finding LaRuffa at the left edge of the crease.

That was the beginning of an even exchange of points in the period. After a holding penalty on Chestnut Hill helped the Churchmen collect a man-up goal from Max Crockett, Pete Adubato answered with CHA’s second goal with just under three minutes remaining. The Devils then drew back-to-back penalties, killing the first, but not the second, as Fitzpatrick’s extra-man marker set the score at 6-2 for the start of the fourth quarter.

The pattern of alternating goals continued early in the final frame, with an underhander from the top of the offensive set by the hosts’ Nick Ruff tunneling into the Episcopal cage (Marino assisted), and with EA’s response coming from Adrian Peskin, making it 7-3 with 9:50 left to play. On the next face-off, the visitors came up with the ball and quickly turned it over, and off a feed from Tyler Stout from behind the cage, Greg Quillian leapt high for a shot that got the Devils back within three points of the lead.

A few minutes later, CHA’s Marino drove in towards the goal while being hammered by defensemen, holding onto the ball and getting off a successful shot with 5:41 left to play. There was now genuine cause for concern on the EA sideline, with the count now at 7-5.

Not long after that, though, Chestnut Hill was caught offsides, and the Churchmen quickly cashed in for their fourth “power play” goal of the day, as Reid Whelan earned his fourth assist of the game on the netter by Crockett with 4:56 remaining. At 4:19, the final score went up on the board as Cody Isdaner slipped a pass to Peskin for the ninth Episcopal goal.

Down by four, CHA now needed points in a hurry, but was weakened by a one-minute unnecessary roughness penalty with 3:43 to go. Determined to hold on for a precious league victory, the Churchmen maintained possession most of the time going down the stretch.

Capping off a superb 18-save effort that included stops on a number of point-blank shots, CHA sophomore John L. Harris turned aside attempts by Fitzpatrick, Isdaner, and Whelan in the final minutes. EA keeper Matt Lerman made 11 saves for the visitors.

Looking towards CHA’s future as a full-fledged Inter-Ac franchise, Coach Plummer commented, “The kids have a lot of work to do; that’s clear from the totals of our first year in the league. We have to put in the effort at camps, in the weight room, and just in playing the game – living the game – a little bit harder and longer. We lose three seniors (Ruff, Stout, and Sean Fitzpatrick), but there are 11 rising ninth graders who’ll be moving up.”

Plummer, who is head of the middle school at Chestnut Hill, will be leaving the academy along with this year’s seniors. His successor as lacrosse coach, current Episcopal assistant Khari Baten, was on the sidelines for the Churchmen at the season finale. Plummer is heading to Florida to become Headmaster of the Tampa Preparatory School.

“No lacrosse, and no more coaching,” he pointed out. “That’s the last game I’ll ever coach.”

At CHA, Plummer has planted the seeds of a program that shows clear signs that it will thrive in seasons to come.