Ballhandler Blake Target (left), a Penn Charter sophomore, takes advantage of a pick set against an ANC defender by his junior teammate, Mac Wlson (#3). (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

For lacrosse fans at Penn Charter, it was pretty exciting when the Quakers scored with one second left in the second quarter to go into the halftime break with a 3-2 lead over visiting Academy of the New Church. There would be even more excitement with one tick of the clock to go in the fourth quarter, when PC found the net to win the game, 6-5.

Junior Dylan Schwartz made the deciding shot with an assist from classmate Luke Stansfield, leveling off Charter’s season record at 1-1. Two days earlier, the Quakers had opened their 2016 campaign with a 5-9 setback against a traditionally-strong squad from Virginia, St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes School.

PC senior Sean McKee, a Fairfield University signee who is considered one of the top goalies in the region, made five saves in Thursday’s win. His ANC counterpart, senior Thomas Villante, made seven stops.

Not long after Quakers freshman Gavin Tygh won the opening face-off in the game, Penn Charter’s initial shot strayed just outside the upper left corner of the Lions’ goalcage. The hosts got on the board a little over two minutes in. From the top of the offensive set Schwartz put away a bounce shot off an assist from Drew Gallant, a senior headed to the University of Massachusetts.

ANC, playing it’s first official game, possessed the ball on offense for more than five minutes. It was a good test for a young PC defense, which stayed focused during this span.

“We graduated a lot of guys on defense last year, so we have to find ways to bridge that experience gap,” pointed out longtime Charter head coach Pat McDonough. “We have David Gottlieb (a senior) and Alex Malitas (a junior who’s verballed to Marquette), and we have guys like Sam Keyser and Zach Lee, two freshmen who are playing a ton of minutes for us.”

The Quakers went back on the attack with a little over four minutes left in the half. Schwartz sent a shot off of a goalpost, and junior Mac Wilson had a low shot stopped by ANC’s Villante.

The visitors pressed for a tying goal in the final seconds, but a save by McKee against ANC’s Kam Kittrels kept the Quakers ahead, 1-0.

The second quarter began with another period of ANC offense, but when the Quakers eventually got the ball away from the Lions, they went down the field quickly in a transition sequence capped off by a goal from Tygh. Down 2-0, the visitors quickly got back on even footing through back-to-back markers by Milo Navarro with 10:17 and 8:47 remaining in the first half.

It looked like the 2-2 tally would stay on the board until halftime, but Wilson shot the first of PC’s last-second goals in the game to have the hosts ahead at the interlude, 3-2.

The home team’s halftime advantage vanished 16 seconds into the third period, as Dave Closterman quickly brought the Lions even off of a pass from James Vandegrift. After that, ANC continued to keep the play mostly in its attacking end for another six minutes, but PC’s McKee turned away once bounce shot from about 12 yards out, and two others missed the goal.

Charter’s attackmen were eager to get a chance to see action at the other end of the field, but when they did, haste hampered their effectiveness.

As Coach McDonough remarked, “When you’re an offensive player, you get a little antsy when you’re not touching the ball for a long stretch, and you can tend to just fire the ball right away when you do get it. We had some opportunities where we did put some shots on the cage, but not into the back of the net.”

Near the end of the third period, multiple whistles were directed at PC by the officials, and for half-a-minute the hosts had to play with three field players against ANC’s six. Just as two Quakers were released from the penalty box but before they could effectively rejoin the fray, New Church seized its first lead of the game.

A feed from Closterman set up a marker by Vandegrift to move the Lions ahead, 4-3, with 1:33 left to play in round three. Charter tied it 37 seconds later, on an unassisted strike by Stansfield from the right side.

The visitors were hit with a one-minute penalty for a slash with one second to go in the period, and 43 seconds into the fourth quarter, senior Cody Sweeney’s assist allowed sophomore Blake Target to crank a shot from the outside, giving the hosts a 5-4 edge.

The play flowed back and forth across midfield for several minutes. From the right flank, Sweeney whipped a sidearm shot that was a little wide of the far post. With the game clock down to 5:02, the visitors knotted the score at 5-5 when Vandegrift got the ball to Closterman in front of the Quakers’ cage.

Penn Charter’s McDonough called a time-out with 3:04 on the clock, then asked for another with exactly one minute to go.

When the Quakers returned to the field for the last time, their coach related, “We were just running our regular stuff. We were talking to Dylan the whole time about getting to that back side. Luke Stansfield has made some good plays for us, and he got the ball to Dylan in the right spot. We definitely wanted to take the last shot, but we didn’t plan to leave it until that late.”

Just as the contest appeared headed for overtime, Schwartz converted off of Stansfield’s pass, allowing PC to prevail in a miracle finish.