Upper Dublin rolled to a win over District 11 champion Moravian Academy in Tuesday’s opening round of the PIAA Class 2A State Tournament. (Photo provided courtesy of Liam Perlmutter/Hatboro-Horsham HS)
PIAA Class 2A Tournament opening round.
#1-2 Upper Dublin 14, #11-1 Moravian Academy 4
Talk about an impressive response – this was it.
The Cards were coming off a disappointing 13-8 loss to Penncrest in the District 1 2A title game. They took out any frustration they may have felt after that loss on an unsuspecting Moravian Academy squad in Tuesday’s opening round of the PIAA 3A Tournament.
“I feel like after that Penncrest loss – we were battening down the hatches at practice this week,” junior defensive midfielder Joey Burns said. “We worked our tails off – conditioning, becoming stronger as a unit and playing together.
“An emphasis that we added was being heavy on the ball, having your sticks in lanes and causing turnovers, which I think we did a great job of today. Winning scrappy ground balls was definitely a key for us and just having goldfish memory. If you get scored on, next play. It’s been a big emphasis for us this year. We definitely took a step with becoming stronger as a unit.”
The Cardinals used their loss to Penncrest as a learning experience.
“Directly after the loss, we all kind of got into our feelings a little bit, but our coach always says from the start of the season – win your next play, just keep going, scrap the bad things,” UD long stick midfielder (LSM) Danny McMonagle said. “We just had to scrap the loss and get better from it.
“I think that did make us more determined because we were coming off a hard loss. There were probably things we could have done better against Penncrest, but now we can come back in states and show the whole district what we can do.”
The Cardinals turned a 2-2 tie into a 7-2 halftime advantage on their way to the lopsided win.
“We really just had to get our legs underneath us,” UD coach Pat Lacon said. “It’s a game of runs. There’s a lot of emotion that goes into this. Anybody can beat anybody, specifically this time of year.
“You’ve got to control the controllables, and for us, that’s your energy, your attitude and your awareness. (We) talk about the next play mentality. You’ve got to have real tough mental awareness and strong mental toughness because, especially in these types of games – it’s not going to go perfect. That goes to the coaches on the sideline, making sure we are all focused in on our jobs and our roles and making sure the kids buy into that kind of stuff.”
UD’s lead grew to 13-3 at the end of three quarters on their way to the win.
“At the beginning of the game, I definitely think it was pretty even, but once we got settled in, the jitters kind of went away,” senior defenseman Jacob Reif said. “Our face-off guy, Vinnie (Afflisio), really took control. He lost the first couple, but that didn’t really bother him, and he won a lot of the rest of the faceoffs, and that gave our offense a chance to control the ball.
“The offense did have it a lot of the second half, and when they did, they capitalized. Even when we were on defense, we really held them off. That’s what really encapsulated our win is that we took advantage of the opportunities we had in front of us. When the offense had the ball, they buried it in the back of the net, and when we were on defense, we took care of business and gave it back to the offense.”
Tuesday’s win was Upper Dublin’s first in state tournament play since 2016.
“I think the expectation was to at least make it to states this year,” Afflisio said. “I know my freshman year we made it to states. Last year, we lost to Marple Newtown in the district semifinals. That was the big thing. We made it over the hump this year, and we made it to the district championship,.
“We’re one of (eight Class 2A) teams left in the state, and that’s always an amazing opportunity. Coach Lacon says about the next day, the next mission. Playing a couple more days is big, keeping this group together, and that’s important to us. Just keep going.”
Chase Foster’s six-point game (3 goals, 3 assists) led the Cardinals’ attack. Michael Pileggi (1 goal, 3 assists) and Nate Brown (3 goals, 1 assist) both added a four-point games. Matthew Shohen contributed a hat trick.
--Afflisio gets assist from Pillai – Vinnie Afflisio, the Cards’ FOGO and also LSM, finished with eight faceoff wins. His wins at the X coincided with UD blowing Tuesday’s game wide open.
“I started with one move and tried to switch it off, and I lost the first four,” Afflisio said. “But then I went back to Aarush (Pillai), our starting face-off guy at the beginning of the season, and he told me to go with this one move, and I pretty much won 75 percent of them after that.
“I give big credits to him because he helps me out a lot. Even though he’s done for the year (with a torn ACL), he still helps me out and continues to help build success for the team.”
The Cardinals, according to their coach had some ‘tricks’ they were working on throughout the week that Afflisio applied.
“When that started to cause some confusion and doubt on their (faceoff) guy, who is pretty good, that really allowed Vinnie to capitalize because any time you’re uncomfortable at this time of year, it unfortunately will not be in your favor,” Lacon said. “We want to be seasoned throughout our season.”
--Getting defensive – Allowing just four goals – two after the opening quarter – is a tribute to the Cardinals’ tenacious defense.
“Of big importance that we focused on going into the game – we saw on film how they ran a 1-4-1 set, and we realized we had to put pressure on the ball,” UD senior defenseman Chris Idi said. “That was a big emphasis this week – just putting a little pressure on everyone. We saw success – they were throwing the ball away, and we were creating turnovers.”
Lacon credited his defense for its standout performance.
“They made some big boy plays,” the Cardinals’ coach said. “There was a really tough moment – a tough ground ball where Joey Burns picked it up. He was met with a lot of physicality from their riding him. He ended up drawing a penalty – all really good stuff.”
And it was the Cards’ stingy defense that allowed UD to open up such a decisive margin.
“We weren’t surprised,” Idi said. “It was kind of like the shift of the team the second half of the year. We’ve been preparing for every moment. We know that we’re highly enough skilled to make a deep run, so it just us displaying our talent.”
--Respect for opponent: Moravian Academy was the third seeded team entering District 11 2A’s four-team tournament and brought a 12-7 record into the state tournament. Its trip to states included a 12-11 win over top-seeded Allentown Central Catholic in the district title game.
“You’ve got to give everyone their respect,” UD senior defenseman Jacob Reif said. “They all made it to states. These guys won District 11, and they beat Allentown Central Catholic, which is very impressive. We had to go into the game knowing anyone can beat anyone else, and I think that’s how we went into it.
“It was tied 2-2 at one point. We were definitely on our heels, but it’s just that mentality – you’ve got a goldfish memory, you’ve got to win the next play, and you’ve got to win each rep, and that’s what we did, and slowly but surely, we ran away with it. I’m totally confident in our guys in any game. I definitely think we can go into any game versus anyone and take care of business.”
Lacon tipped his hat to his opponent.
“I give their program and their staff a lot of credit because they had to overcome some challenging games to get to where they are,” the UD coach said. “Having the opportunity to play at Lehigh University as our first (state) venue is something pretty memorable for everybody. Having that opportunity, having to drive all the way out there was a good opportunity.”
--It’s a family affair: For coach Pat Lacon, Tuesday’s trip to states included some special family time.
“Separate from the game, I was lucky enough because we’re still playing to bring my kids to practice the other day. My oldest son, Declan, who is six, begged me to get him out of school early, so he could ride the bus with us today, so I picked him up, we made the bus and he was on the sidelines. He was our water boy filling up the waters for everybody, so that was pretty special to bring together both the coaching side of the family and my own personal family.”
By the numbers: Upper Dublin: Tristen McNichol (2G), Ryan Bond (1g), Michael Pileggi (1G, 3A), Chase Foster (3g, 3A), Matthew Shohen (3G), Nate Brown (3G, 1A), Chris Idi (1A), Luca Serrao (1G), Vinny Afflisio (8 F/O wins), Ben Shervin (11 Saves)
Upper Dublin coach Pat Lacon
“When you have the opportunity – like our guys – to go up against some of the best competition in the state and sometimes even the country, you see what your shortcomings are, and that’s not a bad thing. We talk a lot about facing adversity. Where most of our growth comes from is being uncomfortable. We try to throw them into the deep end, and I think we saw today that although we had the jitters at times, we really just settled in because we were comfortable in a position like that.”
Up next: Upper Dublin will take on District 7 champion Mars at a neutral site on Saturday.
Upper Dublin 3-4-6-1 14
Moravian Academy 2-0-1-1 4
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