Penn-Trafford lacrosse teams continue to improve

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, May 18, 2018 | 11:00 PM

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With both being less than a decade old, the Penn-Trafford boys and girls lacrosse programs continue to lay the groundwork to build sustainable success.

The boys team finished with a 9-6 record and narrowly missed the playoffs, ranking behind Peters Township, Bethel Park, Latrobe and Norwin in Section 1-AAA.

The Warriors made their only WPIAL playoff appearance in 2016 after finishing 11-3.

Junior Griffin Martin led the Warriors with 83 points. Coach Dan Hagerty will look to replace holes in the midfield created by the graduation of a trio of seniors: John Hagerty, Cam Laffoon and Nick Bernard.

John Hagerty finished second in scoring with 51 points, and Laffoon finished third (38) and Bernard fourth (25).

“Those will be tough shoes to fill because that's the position where you need good stick-handling skills, but you also need to be able to run all day. That will be a big hole for us that we will need people to fill,” Dan Hagerty said.

“From an offensive production and from being able to leg it up and down the field those three will be hard to replace.”

On the back end, junior goalie Aaron Deutsch manned the net, and Jacob Pepple headlined a defensive unit filled with members of the junior class.

Dan Hagerty was pleased with the Warriors' ability to go toe-to-toe with South Fayette and come out with an 11-8 win April 7.

“We had a strong win against South Fayette, who is a very disciplined team, and they show up with 45 kids and we're very small in numbers. It's good to be able to pull a win like that out with such a shallow bench and against a good and strong team,” Hagerty said.

For the girls, first-year coach Nancy Happel helped the Warriors continue to develop as a fairly new program.

In Happel's eyes, the season became a success after the first game. Since the Warriors were winless last year, Happel was pleased to come out of the gates with a 17-5 win over Freeport.

“When we won, especially by the margin that we did, they all realized the potential they had, and it made them want to win and they finally felt how it felt to win,” Happel said.

The Warriors finished 4-10, which placed them behind Fox Chapel, Shady Side Academy, Indiana, Latrobe and Norwin in Section 2-AAA.

Penn-Trafford defeated Freeport a second time, 13-3, on April 17. The Warriors also earned two wins against Hempfield.

The Warriors were led by juniors Karah Thatcher and Lexi Trentini, as well as sophomore Alexis Buzzard.

Happel said Thatcher proved to be a clutch player for the Warriors.

“She came up and put the team on her back when we really needed her to. She scored the goals at the end. She made a lot of game-winning plays,” Happel said.

Even in her first season, Happel gave all the credit for improvement to her players.

“I brought the knowledge, but they brought the drive and the effort,” Happel said. “There were games that they could've won, but they know that and they can bring it into next season.”

Andrew John is a freelance writer.

Tags: Penn-Trafford