©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Young Devils down Westtown JV in lacrosse
by TOM UTESCHER

Early in the fourth quarter of last Thursday’s home game, Blue Devils sophomore Mike Marino assisted Connor O’Brien’s goal and then scored one of his own to help cement CHA’s 7-3 victory over Westtown. (Photo by Lene White)

Founded just last year, Chestnut Hill Academy’s lacrosse team routinely plays against junior varsity teams from other Inter-Ac League schools, and against varsity squads from non-Inter-Ac institutions.

Somehow, this was not made clear last week to Westtown, a Friends School League affiliate which sent its junior varsity, instead of its varsity team, to CHA on Thursday afternoon. To make it more of an even match, the host Blue Devils used their reserve players - mostly freshmen and sophomores - in the contest, and still came away with a 7-3 victory.

Recording two goals apiece by freshman Dante LaRuffa and junior Tyler Ahrenhold, CHA attained an overall mark of 9-3, while its record against Inter-Ac JV’s remained 5-2.

With about four minutes left in the first quarter Westtown’s Brent Willhite opened the scoring in the game, but the Moose would only find the net two more times the rest of the way. With just under two minutes to go a CHA shot was partially blocked and knocked up into the air, and LaRuffa batted the ball into the cage.

In round two, Westtown struck first again, as Robbie Crouder drove through the middle for a successful shot. CHA’s Ahrenhold first tied the game with 3:18 remaining in the half, then 33 seconds later he moved the Blue Devils ahead for good with a bounce shot from the top of the offense. CHA still led 3-2 at halftime.

In the middle of the third quarter there were near misses by Derek Mele and Greg Quillian of CHA, then with the clock down to 3:40 Quillian scored from in front of the cage off of a pass from Roger Peiken. Westtown stayed close, with a second goal by Crouder sending the match into the fourth period with the hosts leading by one point, 4-3.

The Devils’ first insurance goal came two-and-a-half minutes into the final round, when a feed from Mike Marino found scorer Connor O’Brien close to the crease in front of visiting goaltender Ryan Ott (11 saves total). Marino then fired one in himself, making it 6-3 with 5:55 left to play.

Not long after that, mutual penalties were called against a Westtown player and against CHA goalie Vaughn Smith. Smith, better known as a defenseman, was playing in the net for only the second time, and he posted nine saves for the afternoon.

While he was in the penalty box the Devils’ regular goalie, Brett Shandler, filled in, making one save during his brief stay in the cage. When a second CHA goal by LaRuffa went in with two-and-a-half minutes remaining, the final score of 7-3 was on the board.