The first period began with a flurry of goals for Mars, and from then on out the Fightin' Planets continued to impose their will in the Class AA boys lacrosse finals as they vanquished Quaker Valley, 19-6, to net their second consecutive WPIAL championship.
Top-seeded Mars opened with an impressive 7-1 first-quarter showing and, from there the champs relentlessly poured it on, reaching the 12-goal mercy rule with 4 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in the third period.
Despite their dominance, coach Bob Marcoux's team rarely took its foot off the gas. Every attempt the No. 2 Quakers (13-3) made to chip away at their opponent's lead, Mars (19-2) had an answer as the Planets repeatedly squashed any potential rallies.
“It's been a challenge all year. These guys have really done a good job maintaining that focus and understanding that the game is never over,” Marcoux said. “We've come back from a lot of big deficits to win so we know that we've got to maintain our focus.”
Anthony Greico led the charge for the Planets with five goals, and Cade Hetzler netted three to go along with an assist. The two juniors certainly made an impact around the net, but in large part Mars benefitted from a well-rounded attack that also featured two-goal performances from Ben Lewis, Luke Miller and Hayden Vasbinder.
“We got a lot of scoring from all of our kids all year long. We've had a real balanced attack all year,” Marcoux said. “It's tough for other teams because there's no one person that they can key on. We've got six or seven guys who are really, really tough offensively.”
One major obstacle that prevented Quaker Valley from building any momentum in its comeback effort was the faceoff prowess of Planets' junior Andrew Moyer, who rewarded his team with possession on a nearly routine basis following their scoring efforts.
“We've been a second-half team all year; we play kind of tight in the first half and then we loosen up. We were getting better at it, but there's a game where we made unforced errors early, and it was tough to come back for us,” Quaker Valley coach Chip Hansen said.
“We didn't have an answer for their faceoff guy; we just had to go back and play defense. That hurt us with possession. They're a good team over there, and we came up short.”
Connor Mangan and Geoffrey Magin each scored two goals for the Quakers. Devin Sye and Jake Giotto scored one goal apiece.
Both teams advance to the PIAA tournament. Mars will play District 10 champion Cathedral Prep at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at North Allegheny. Quaker Valley will take on District 3 runner-up Hershey at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Central Dauphin.
Kevin Lohman is a freelance writer.
