York County lacrosse looks for gold at Keystone Games
Sam Emig of Red Lion and Cody Richter of West York share a pleasant memory from last year's Keystone State Games.
It was Richter's across-the-field pass to a wide-open Emig that led to the game-winning goal in overtime as York County won the boys' lacrosse scholastic division gold medal game.
"(Delaware County was) a tough team," Richter said. "We had a man up and I skip passed to (Emig), and he found the goal. I was just happy to win. I've played every year I can in these, and last year's team was one of the best I've ever been a part of."
This year's event began with pool play Saturday at Cousler Park. Pool play finishes today and the medal-round games follow.
"We're still looking pretty strong," said York County coach Dan Ruocco, who will begin his fourth year coaching the West York lacrosse team next spring after helping start the Red Lion program.
It has been a dominant run the past two years in the boys' lacrosse scholastic division for York County at the Keystone State Games, which is in a three-year cycle of being held in York.
Last year's team, led by 2016 GameTimePA Player of the Year Collin Mailman of York Suburban, didn't lose a game. York County went 3-0-2 in pool play and scored 47 goals while surrendering just 17. In the medal round, York College defeated Blue Mountain by a 10-4 score to advance to the gold medal game where it defeated Delaware County, 5-4.
"It was really exciting last year," said Richter, who is almost fully recovered from a broken collar bone and hopes to play some minutes this weekend. "We had a really good team. The first day, we were kind of sloppy. We played close to some teams we probably should have just destroyed. The second day, we just came out and everybody worked as a team and everything clicked."
The win over Blue Mountain last year avenged York County's lone loss in the 2014 Games. York went 5-0 in pool play then, scoring 36 goals while allowing 12, but York was knocked out of gold medal contention with a 10-6 loss to Blue Mountain. York rebounded to beat Montgomery County, 4-3, and won the bronze.
Mailman, who has since graduated and will be competing for NCAA Division I Drexel University this coming season, was joined on last year's squad by nine 2015 GameTimePA first-team All-Stars including Emig, who scored 70 or more goals for a second-straight season. He has led the YAIAA in scoring for two consecutive seasons.
"We had practice maybe twice a week for three weeks," Richter said. "It wasn't a lot and some of us had other commitments here and there. Most of us played with each other before, whether it was on summer teams or whatever, and we all played against each other in school ball. So we had an idea of each other's games."
Emig, Richter, Kollin Vaught of Central York and Nathan Downey of Dallastown all return from last year's gold medal team. A total of 19 players from last year's 24-man roster graduated.
"We lost a lot, but I think we still have plenty of talent here," Emig said. "We'll find out in the first game. We have Blue Mountain. They gave us a fight last year. It's become a little bit of a rivalry. They are next-door neighbors, so that plays into it too."
Richter, Vaught and Downey will be juniors this fall while Emig is beginning his senior year.
"Compared with last year I feel like we have the same equal talent, same equal athleticism and same IQ," Vaught said. "I think it will be the same results as last year."
