The Peace Report Lax Blog 2018 PNC Invitational Recap:
It was another successful PNC Invitational on Saturday night at Loyola University’s Ridley Athletic Complex. Corrigan Sports Enterprises and PNC Bank definitely know how to roll out the red carpet for the local private high school. lacrosse teams.
Both games of the doubleheader were pretty exciting for the most part. In the girls game, Roland Park looked sharp and defeated IAAM A conference rival, Notre Dame Prep. As for the boys game, Severn took care of business against Anne Arundel County neighbor and MIAA A conference foe, Archbishop Spalding, 8–3.
Playing in a college stadium setting, having post game press conferences and getting ready in the Loyola teams locker rooms is just some of the perks these teams get.
This was the second year that their was a Girls game featured in the doubleheader. The Reds were explosive in the first half, most notably senior Chelsea Kovinsky finished with 6 points (5 goals, 1 assist).
Roland Park (5–2) put up nine points in the first half. It was a team effort for the Reds, who badly needed this win after suffering back to back losses to Maryvale Prep and arch rivals Bryn Mawr (on Friday).
Head coach Kim McNemar said afterwards that her team hadn’t found its focus since returning from a road trip to Georgia earlier this month to face out-of-conference competition. “If we play like a team we can be unstoppable. They’ve remained positive through those losses and came out here and did what we asked them to do.”
Junior goaltender and Loyola commit Amber Bustard is the quarterback for this team and she embraces that role. “We kind of had a rough start to the season. We weren’t really like, playing as a team. So I took it upon myself. to step up big and make the saves that I needed (to make). In the first half I didn’t have to do as much as the attack did most of the work. But in the second half I had to make sure we held the lead.” Bustard finished with 9 saves for RPCS.
The Blazers couldn’t find their momentum the entire game. NDP had the early lead but the Reds jumped out and started piling on the goals. Nancy Halleron had two goals and Caitlyn Mossman finished with two assists.
Notre Dame Prep has had a lackluster start to the season. The Blazers carry over 40 players on the varsity roster and were ranked in the Top-10 in national preseason polls. But an upsetting loss to Glenelg Country and then the loss Saturday night will drop the Blazers down in the rankings.
(Make sure to check out the Peace Report Girls HS Top-10 rankings in this weeks Pressbox HS Lacrosse Update)
Both Severn and Archbishop Spalding put up a combined 11 goals on 50 shots. Those numbers aren’t impressive. But both teams competed as if it were a closer score of a game.
Dylan Gergar had a hat trick, Collin Ervin scored a pair of goals and both Jake Lilly and Joel Mandish each had a goal and an assist for the Admirals who improved to 2–1.
Niklas McFarland, Russell Melendez and Dan Shay had the goals for Spalding who falls to 4–2.
All in all it was a beautiful night for lacrosse and both teams had a great time.
