KINGSTON – The upward climb of the Wyoming Area lacrosse programs continued right through the end of the fourth season for each during Monday’s District 2 Class 2A semifinals.
The Lady Warriors played in that round for the first time ever while the Warriors were more competitive in their second straight trip there.
“As long as we keep improving every year,” said Wyoming Area girls coach Carl DeLuca. “We made it to the semifinals this year.”
Both teams posted their best records this season.
The Lady Warriors went 7-4 in the Wyoming Valley Conference. The Warriors were 9-4, won their second straight WVC Division 2 title and recorded their first win over a Division 1 opponent.
Among the many reasons both programs can look to the possibility of continuing the progress in the future is that each was led by high-scoring efforts from sophomores.
Wyoming Seminary 14
Wyoming Area girls 8
Cassidy Orzel scored six goals for Wyoming Area, which got in a big hole early and played the eight-time district champions more competitively as the game progressed.
Wyoming Seminary scored seven goals in nine minutes to open a 9-0 lead with 8:11 left in the first half.
“We gave up seven quick goals,” DeLuca said. “We changed things a little on our defense, slowed them down a little bit, then we were able to score, so we made it a little more of a game as it started going on.”
Paige Parsons scored three goals for the Blue Knights while Emily Sims had two goals and two assists.
Wyoming Area closed within 9-4 at halftime, then played on near-even terms with Wyoming Seminary in the second half.
Lindsey Pozaic and Amanda McCormick had the other goals for the Lady Warriors.
“We’re still a young team,” DeLuca said. “We blended in some new girls and we’re still only in our fourth year.
“We have a nice group coming up from Valley Laxerz, more freshmen coming up, so we should be looking good for the future.”
Scranton Prep 15
Wyoming Area boys 13
Ethan Hosier had five goals and fellow sophomore F.J. Braccini added four for the host Warriors in Monday afternoon’s game.
The Warriors were in a competitive battle throughout after losing by seven goals against Crestwood in the same round at home a year earlier.
Dan Hinton scored five goals, Luke Johnson added four and Greg Fisher had three to lead Scranton Prep. Hinton also had two assists.
Wyoming Area also got two goals from Dominic Deluca and one each from Alex Hawk and Jake Switzer. Switzer had three assists and Alex Gonzales had one.
Jake Urban had nine saves for the Warriors.
