Sat. Pa. boys’ roundup: Conestoga, Holy Ghost win state titles

Conestoga and Holy Ghost Prep celebrated the first state championship for each school in boys' tennis on Saturday.

Conestoga emerged from an all-District 1 final four to win the PIAA Class AAA crown, 3-0, over Unionville at the Hershey Racquet Club.

Freshman Brian Grodecki, who lost one match this spring, won at third singles, and the Pioneers' doubles teams of Christian Lyon and Alex Free, and Brendan McShane and Josh Sutker added straight-set wins to seal the verdict.

Matches involving District 1 singles champ Kevin Wang, a junior, at first singles and sophomore Jason Sutker at second singles were not completed.

"The players were ecstatic," after the match, said Conestoga's Blake Stabert, who is in his fourth season as co-coach with Jon Goodman. "They put their imprint on the team's program. It had been an afterthought at the school, but they established an identity."

The Pioneers, who had beaten Unionville by 3-2 in the District 1 final, reached the state final with a 3-1 semifinal win over Radnor, which has lost to the eventual state champ in the last four state tournaments. Unionville got past Wissahickon, 3-1.

Class AA. Connor Pietrak pulled off a comeback from an 0-6 first-set setback to win his first-singles match, 0-6, 7-5, 6-3, and secure Holy Ghost Prep's first state championship with a 3-2 win over Wyomissing.

The Firebirds also won both doubles matches as Chad Nowak and Dan Burke claimed a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 marathon win at second doubles, and Evan Tarzian and Christian Bernlohr teamed for a 6-1, 6-2 triumph at first singles.

Keith Dreyer scored four goals and Drew Kennedy won 11 of 13 face-offs in leading Malvern Prep to a 6-4 win over Penn Charter in the semifinals of the inaugural Inter-Ac Invitational at Cabrini College.

Malvern will face Haverford School, a 13-11 winner over Lawrenceville in the other semifinal, for the title at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Cabrini. Senior midfielder Matt Walters had two goals and two assists for the Fords.

District 1. Colin Sullivan's goal with five seconds left in the second overtime gave Pennsbury a 4-3 tournament quarterfinal win over Avon Grove at West Chester Henderson.

Ryan McDonald's second goal of the game with 3 minutes, 1 second left in regulation sent the game into overtime. The 13th-seeded Falcons (14-6) survived a three-goal effort from Avon Grove's Damian Sobieski to advance to the semifinals.

Conestoga whipped Abington, 14-1, in the other quarterfinal at Henderson as Conner Frisina's four goals and Tyler Brooke's three goals fueled the Pioneers.

Downingtown West got four goals from Zach Logan in a 14-4 quarterfinal win over Spring-Ford at Harriton.

Dylan Ikkala, Eric Rankel and Brad Shenberger added a pair of goals each for the Whippets. Rankel also had a pair of assists.

Also at Harriton, Central Bucks East turned 10 saves by goalie Harrison Holak and two goals each from Blake Ament, Parker Self and Connor McSherry into a 10-6 win over Ridley.

Public. The league lacrosse regular season concluded with a pair of games at Simon Gratz..

Northeast topped Del-Val Charter, 10-3, in the first game, followed by Mastery Charter's 11-1 win over Audenried.

Northeast scored five goals in the first quarter and coasted to a 10-3 win over Del-Val Charter. The Vikings got two goals apiece from Veasna Kim, Ryan London and Eric O'Brien.

Mastery Charter got four goals from Chris Batts.

Audneried will play Del Val in the first round of the Public League playoffs on Monday at Southern.

Friends' Central topped Friends Select, 10-0, in the Friends Schools League championship game. Sophomore Aaron Ross pitched a five-inning complete game.

Beau Hauser, a senior shortstop who is a Dickinson recruit, went 2 for 3 with four RBIs in the title game.

The Phoenix (19-9) will open the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Tournament with a home game on Tuesday (4:15) against Hill School.

Inter-Ac. Malvern Prep clinched its first league title since 2008 with a 2-0 win at Chestnut Hill, getting a two-hitter from Sean O'Keefe, who had a no-hitter through five innings.

O'Keefe struck out three and walked two.

Nate Bateman's fifth-inning sacrifice fly scored what turned out to be the winning run. Steve Perpiglia's two-out single to right produced a sixth-inning insurance run.

Ken Koplove's pitched a three-hitter for Penn Charter in its final regular-season game, a 6-2 win at Episcopal Academy. Koplove's sixth complete game of the season was a nine-strikeout complete game, lowering his ERA to 2.00.

Penn Charter scored what turned out to be the winning runs with two in the second inning, taking advantage of five walks.

They have a chance to finish with an overall winning record with a good showing in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Tournament which opens on Tuesday at Shipley.

Catholic. In the completion of a game that was suspended on Thursday, Conwell-Egan defeated host Lansdale Catholic, 11-3. Nick DiChristofaro went 3 for 4 with a double and five RBIs.

Eric Frain's two-run single in the sixth inning was the winning hit for Archbishop Ryan in a 6-5 triumph at Roman Catholic.

Westtown and host Germantown Friends finished tied for first place with 112 points apiece to share the Friends Schools League team title, the first shared championship in a meet history that goes back to 1982.

One of the highlights for the Tigers came in the 3,200-meter race they swept the first three places, led by Evan Caldwell's time of 9 minutes, 51.75 seconds.

Westtown's Ade Adeshoye won both hurdles races.