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Malvern Prep upends Episcopal

A left knee buckled, and a body lunged forward. The same image, but in separate circumstances, brought opposite results for Matt Barrett.

Malvern Prep's Kevin McGeary, left, celebrates with Tommy O'Connor after O'Connor's goal at Malvern High School on Friday, May 3, 2013. (Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)
Malvern Prep's Kevin McGeary, left, celebrates with Tommy O'Connor after O'Connor's goal at Malvern High School on Friday, May 3, 2013. (Ron Cortes/Staff Photographer)Read more

A left knee buckled, and a body lunged forward.

The same image, but in separate circumstances, brought opposite results for Matt Barrett.

While playing tackle for the Malvern Prep football team in September, Barrett tore his left anterior cruciate ligament after an opponent drove into his lower half while he had his leg planted.

Eight months later on the same field, Barrett planted his left leg again, this time as the goalie for the Friars lacrosse team. Wearing a knee brace, the senior University of Virginia recruit went to the ground to make a dramatic save in the fourth quarter of a game against Episcopal Academy on Friday.

Barrett made 14 stops on 19 shots on goal to lead the Friars to an 11-5 win in a game with huge implications in the Inter-Ac League.

With a win, the Churchmen could have clinched at least a share of their first Inter-Ac regular-season title since 1998. But now Malvern Prep and Haverford School are still in the hunt.

Malvern Prep coach John McEvoy thought Barrett's injury would leave him sidelined for a significant amount of time, but Barrett has played in every lacrosse game this season.

"It's like it never happened," McEvoy said. "He's like [NFL running back] Adrian Peterson."

The Friars jumped on the Churchmen early, scoring on each of their first three shots. Less than three minutes into the first quarter, Malvern Prep held a three-goal lead.

Episcopal cut the margin to 5-2 by halftime, but struggled to get the ball past Barrett in the second half.

"The defense played really well," Barrett said. "All the shots I saw, I felt that the defense was doing a good job in front of me."

Malvern Prep, ranked No. 2 in the area by phillylacrosse.com, improved to 12-4 overall and 6-1 in the Inter-Ac. Episcopal, ranked No. 1, dropped to 13-4 and 7-1.

The Inter-Ac regular season will wrap up next week.

"It doesn't matter who you're playing - if you're in the Inter-Ac and you have more than one loss, you're not going to win it," McEvoy said. "And it's really tough to go undefeated in the Inter-Ac."

Episcopal Academy 1 1 2 1 – 5

Malvern Prep 4 1 3 3 – 11

Goals: EA: Tyler Chambers, Peter Gayhardt, Trupert Ortlieb 2, Curtis Zappala; MP-Joe Dunn 2, Conor Glancy, Chris Hillburn 2, Kevin McGeary, Eddie McLoughlin, Tommy O'Connor 2, Joe Carlini 2.

Saves: EA-Colin Reder 10; MP-Matt Barrett 14.