Persistence will pay off, Mt. Lebanon boys lacrosse coach believes
For the second straight season, the Mt. Lebanon High boys lacrosse team has been eliminated from the postseason in the semifinal round of the PIAA Division 1 tournament. The Blue Devils fell behind early and dropped a 12-3 decision to LaSalle College of Philadephia on Tuesday night at Penn State. The loss ended the Blue Devils' season at 16-7. LaSalle College (20-4) will be playing for the PIAA Division 1 boys state title against Eastern champion Conestoga, the top-rated team in the Eastern part of the state, at 3 p.m. Saturday at Hersheypark Stadium.
Mt. Lebanon coach Mike Ermer believes it's just a matter of time before a team from Western Pennsylvania will compete for a boys state title.
"We're not going to be able to kick a door in," said Ermer. "It's more like a steady drip of water against a large rock. But we're starting to get a foothold, and our guys performed much better this year than they did last year (in the state semifinals). This year, they weren't as wide-eyed as they were last year."
But the Blue Devils had an outstanding player to deal with and could not contain him. Matt Rambo, who earned All-America honors last year as a sophomore, likely will have the same accolade this season. He had six goals for the Explorers in Tuesday's victory over the Blue Devils.
"He's just a very good player," Ermer said.
Ermer said the style of play the Blue Devils played was much like someone jumping into a very cold body of water.
"We really battled hard on the ground balls, but it's really tough to battle against that caliber of defense. Our top guys might be able to battle against their top two or three guys on defense. But there was no dropoff in talent. Their number four through eight guys were just as tough as their top three. We had no way to exploit their defense."
Mt. Lebanon reached the PIAA semifinal after defeating both WPIAL champion Seneca Valley and WPIAL runner-up Shady Side Academy by identical 8-7 scores in the first two rounds of the PIAA tournament.
"When we lost to Shady Side in the WPIAL semifinals (by an 8-3 score), that was a turning point for us," Ermer said. "We got stagnant in that game. For the year, we'd shot 40.25 percent, and in that game we shot 9 percent. That prompted us to shake things up."
Mt. Lebanon adjusted its offense from three midfielders to six midfielders.
"My theory was that we weren't playing enough guys on the offensive side of the field," he said. "We were able to do some good things with some different people. It got me energized, and it got the team energized."
Ermer said the team will lose eight seniors, but he is confident that the team has enough underclass players to step into the breach.
"We have a couple of major contributors coming back, so we should be all right," he said. "Two players who had key goals for us, freshman Sam White and junior Tim McNichol will be back. Our attack line also will be back along with our faceoff man and our goalie."
Currently, three teams are participating in the PIAA Division 1 boys playoffs from the WPIAL. Ermer said the reason there are more teams from District 1 and District 3 is due to the high numbers of teams playing boys lacrosse from those regions. He believes the sport must get larger in Western Pennsylvania before the PIAA adds at least one WPIAL team to the state playoffs.
Something else would help, too.
"We have to get a team into the state championship game," he said. "We have to take that first step before we bring up the idea (of more WPIAL teams in the PIAA playoffs) to the PIAA."
Mt. Lebanon coach Mike Ermer believes it's just a matter of time before a team from Western Pennsylvania will compete for a boys state title.
"We're not going to be able to kick a door in," said Ermer. "It's more like a steady drip of water against a large rock. But we're starting to get a foothold, and our guys performed much better this year than they did last year (in the state semifinals). This year, they weren't as wide-eyed as they were last year."
But the Blue Devils had an outstanding player to deal with and could not contain him. Matt Rambo, who earned All-America honors last year as a sophomore, likely will have the same accolade this season. He had six goals for the Explorers in Tuesday's victory over the Blue Devils.
"He's just a very good player," Ermer said.
Ermer said the style of play the Blue Devils played was much like someone jumping into a very cold body of water.
"We really battled hard on the ground balls, but it's really tough to battle against that caliber of defense. Our top guys might be able to battle against their top two or three guys on defense. But there was no dropoff in talent. Their number four through eight guys were just as tough as their top three. We had no way to exploit their defense."
Mt. Lebanon reached the PIAA semifinal after defeating both WPIAL champion Seneca Valley and WPIAL runner-up Shady Side Academy by identical 8-7 scores in the first two rounds of the PIAA tournament.
"When we lost to Shady Side in the WPIAL semifinals (by an 8-3 score), that was a turning point for us," Ermer said. "We got stagnant in that game. For the year, we'd shot 40.25 percent, and in that game we shot 9 percent. That prompted us to shake things up."
Mt. Lebanon adjusted its offense from three midfielders to six midfielders.
"My theory was that we weren't playing enough guys on the offensive side of the field," he said. "We were able to do some good things with some different people. It got me energized, and it got the team energized."
Ermer said the team will lose eight seniors, but he is confident that the team has enough underclass players to step into the breach.
"We have a couple of major contributors coming back, so we should be all right," he said. "Two players who had key goals for us, freshman Sam White and junior Tim McNichol will be back. Our attack line also will be back along with our faceoff man and our goalie."
Currently, three teams are participating in the PIAA Division 1 boys playoffs from the WPIAL. Ermer said the reason there are more teams from District 1 and District 3 is due to the high numbers of teams playing boys lacrosse from those regions. He believes the sport must get larger in Western Pennsylvania before the PIAA adds at least one WPIAL team to the state playoffs.
Something else would help, too.
"We have to get a team into the state championship game," he said. "We have to take that first step before we bring up the idea (of more WPIAL teams in the PIAA playoffs) to the PIAA."
lacrosse