Lawrenceville, ANC Pick Up Big Wins at FCA Invitational

SPARKS, Md. — A pair of Mid-Atlantic boys’ high school lacrosse programs on the rise came to Baltimore and made it a successful trip with wins over two of the traditional powers in the always rugged Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association on Friday night.

The Lawrenceville School (N.J.) overcame a three-goal halftime deficit and knocked off Calvert Hall 16-9 in the opening game of the FCA Lacrosse Invitational at USA Lacrosse’s Tierney Field. In the nightcap, the Academy of the New Church (Pa.) rode the hot shooting of Penn State commit Hunter Aquino to hold off St. Paul’s 9-8.

Calvert Hall fell into a 2-0 hole to start the game against Lawrenceville, but the Cardinals erupted with some wicked shooting to score seven goals in a span of just over five minutes late in the first quarter to take a big early lead.

The Cardinals led by as many as four goals late in the second quarter, but Lawrenceville started to turn momentum on Hunter Chauvette’s goal with 2:57 left in the half.

Lawrenceville turned to junior goalie Timmy Piacentini at halftime and it was lights out from there. Placentini, a Cornell commit, blanked Calvert Hall in the second half while making eight saves. The Big Red scored three times in the first three minutes of the second half to tie the game 9-9. Chris Matia’s goal with 7:34 left in the third quarter gave Lawrenceville the lead for good and the Big Red continued to pour it on.

Mason Vance, a junior midfielder committed to Michigan, led Lawrenceville with four goals while Chauvette, a senior attackman headed to Yale, had three goals.

Wyatt Hottle, a senior midfielder going to Syracuse, paced the Calvert Hall offense with a goal and four assists and Shuey Kelly (Georgetown) had two goals and two assists. Faceoff specialist Jackson Strickland (Richmond) won 18 of 24. The Cardinals had six failed clears in the game and converted on just 1 of 10 extra man opportunities.

A fluke turnover gave ANC’s Aquino a 1-on-the-goalie situation to start the second game. He converted, the start of a big night.

St. Paul’s tied the game on four separate occasions, but could never move in front in large measure because Aquino had an answer every time the Crusaders got close. Aquino finished with six goals and an assist, his final goal breaking a 7-7 tie with 5:23 left in the fourth quarter to put the Lions up for good.

St. Paul’s made a final run late, as Matthew Marino (UMBC) scored on a two-man up situation with 13 seconds left to pull within one. The Crusaders won the faceoff, but the Lions played smothering defense and St. Paul’s couldn’t get off a final shot

ANC junior goalie Brady Carver (Robert Morris) made eight saves to pick up the victory. The Lions are now 3-0, including a 10-9 overtime win last week over St. John’s (D.C.), the No. 1 team in the final Nike/USA Lacrosse rankings last season.

Grady O’Day (Loyola) led St. Paul’s with a pair of goals and goalie Gordon Smith (Lehigh) made 11 saves.