05/06/23 - It was a beautiful day for pumped up crowd to watch a high-level, top-10 national showdown between the St. Anthony's Friars of Long Island, NY and the Haverford School 'Fords from the Main Line suburbs of Philly.

St. Anthony's brought an undefeated 11-0 ranking to the game while Haverford was 13-2, with losses to highly-ranked McDonogh and Lawrenceville. St. Anthony's struck first, but it was Haverford who led the rest of the game, but never very comfortably. It was nip and tuck at the end as St. Anthony's closed the gap in the 4th quarter and had opportunities late to tie it up.

The 'Fords were led in scoring by Wells Flinn (3G, 2A), Ryan DiRocco (3G, 1A), Brady O'Kane (3G) and Colin Zeller (2G, 1A). I got to coach Ryan DiRocco in club lacrosse a few years ago, so that was fun watching him light it up at the highest level of HS lacrosse. Ben McCarthy won 21 of 31 face-offs to help keep Haverford in the driver's seat.

Owen Duffy lived up to the hype for St. Anthony's with 4 goals and 4 assists. He'll be calling PA his home for college when he takes his talents to Penn State.

It was also fun for me to see Griff Meyer, one of the top face-off men in the '25 class get some action and do well. I coached Griff's brother, Brian, in high school and coached Griff some as he grew up playing youth lacrosse with Ashbee. Brian also took face-offs for us as at Harriton before playing at Lehigh. Griff has a bright future, as well. It was great seeing their Dad, Charlie, too.

Another personal highlight was seeing Owen Huntington and his Dad, Brett. Owen played goalie for Ashbee and is now at Harriton. I hadn't seen him in a few years, so it was tough to believe how different he looks. He's been hitting the weight room!

Well, that's my quick recap of the game and some personal highlights. It was really nice being back in the area I called home for 8+ years to watch some top-notch lacrosse and see some good peeps.

Notes:

- Once again, I shot pics in the first half and video in the second.

- Please check out www.proudlacrosse.com to see more vids and photos.

- Most of the video was shot with a Sony FX3 and Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS lens. The stills and some smaller video clips were shot with a Sony A7iv with both the above lens and also the Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS lens.

Thanks for watching and reading!

Joe