PHS boys lax gets big wins
Parkland’s boys lacrosse team was on a roll heading into this week. And after Monday’s statement win, the Trojans proved they’re starting to hit their stride in the middle of the season.
The traveled to Lancaster County on Monday and picked up a 15-8 win over Manheim Township, a PIAA semifinalist last season.
“[Monday] we had arguably the biggest win in our program’s history,” said Parkland head coach Brad Schifko. “Manheim is perennially a state power. We got a big W against them.”
The Trojans won 15-8 with Gavin Saylor scoring four goals and Dru Miller adding three. Ryan Geroulo, James Cipolla and Ian O’Neill had two goals apiece in the win, while Luke Summer and Greg Santa-Anna had one each.
Parkland followed that with a 32-1 win against an overmatched Northampton team on Tuesday to improve to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in Eastern Pennsylvania Conference play.
After the season’s only loss coming back on March 30 against still unbeaten Central Catholic, Parkland has now reeled off seven straight wins.
“The biggest thing for us is consistency and making sure we’re committing to what it is that we’re working on in practice,” said Schifko. “When we can stay consistent and be efficient, we’re real tough to beat. It sounds cliché but that’s been our focus - taking one game at a time and trying to execute at the highest level we can at both ends of the field.”
Schifko is getting big contributions all over the field this season, starting with his sophomore goalkeeper and moving right on through the field.
“Goalie James McLaughlin is having a fantastic year in goal for us,” said Schifko. “Andrew Albertson, our face off specialist, is doing a tremendous job. On defense we have Alex Albertson is doing an outstanding job.
“Offensively we have two of the area’s leading scorers returning in Gavin Saylor and Dru Miller, who are picking up where they left off a season ago. And our midfield is pretty dominant with the likes of Luke Summers, James Cipolla and Ryan Geroulo. A lot of guys at starting to buy in and do what we’re asking them to do and we’re starting to execute at a high level.”
Parkland heads into Thursday’s game against Emmaus tied with the Hornets (8-2 overall, 6-1EPC) for second place in the East Divison. Central Catholic (9-0, 6-0) leads the division and Easton (7-3, 5-2) is just behind Emmaus and Parkland.
The Trojans also have another big nonleague game coming up this weekend and they’ll get another shot at Central on May 2, but Schifko isn’t looking further than Thursday night.
“We’ve got at tough stretch coming up with Emmaus on Thursday and Cumberland Valley on Saturday,” he said. “Those are two tough games for us. Emmaus being a cross-town rival, it’s a street fight. We’re expecting it to be no different this time around. We’ll get Central in a couple weeks. After [Tuesday’s win over Northampton] game we’re just focusing on Emmaus.”








