Saint Ignatius defeats San Ramon Valley, 12-7

JW McGovern (SI) covered by Kane Franklin (SRV)

photo courtesy of Michael Ennis

In the most anticipated NorCal lacrosse game in years – maybe ever – the Saint Ignatius Wildcats boarded their yellow CYO bus at 4PM and headed off to the East Bay and Wolves' Stadium in San Ramon. Two hours later, they de-bussed, to find the largest regular season crowd in my recollection of NorCal lacrosse. The crowd was not surprising given the back story below:
• In the prior 7 seven years of this rivalry, SI had won 4 and SRV had won 3. No other team has played SI this well
• SRV had won the last two games – 10-8 in 2010 and 11-10 in 2OT during the 2011 season
• That rara avis, the Junior year US Lacrosse All-American shows up on both these squads and no others in NorCal (Michael Tagliaferri and Patrick Worstell at SRV & JW McGovern at SI)
• These two squads lead NorCal in number of NCAA DI recruits with SI having 7 and SRV having 3.
• The only West Coast member of the USA U19 team plays for SRV
• Lacrosse Magazine's top Western Player To Watch plies his trade at SI
• 7 players in this game were members of the 2008 U15 team that dominated at Vail – 4 from SI (Chad Cohan, Peter Doyle, Matt Emery, & JW McGovern) and 3 from SRV(Mike Tagliaferri, Jordan Weiss, and Patrick Worstell). That team was coached by Peter Worstell, SRV's Head Coach. The boys have known each other for years, as have the parents of those boys.
•The winner had 10 goals in 2010, and 11 goals in 2011. Would the winner have 12 goals in 2012?

It would! SI 12 and SRV 7

The game was everything it was expected to be! All seven members of that Vail U15  team scored in this game. 15 of the 19 goals came from players on that Vail team, and six of the eight assists in the game came from those self-same players! But, the key statistic of the game, for me, was that the SI defense held a powerful SRV offense to just 13 shots on cage for the entire game. Astonishing!

Here's the write-up from San Fran Preps
http://www.sanfranpreps.com/2012/03/10/prep-wrapup-st-ignatius-boys-lacrosse-wins-rivalry-game-against-srv/

Boys Lacrosse: St. Ignatius 12, San Ramon Valley 7

The Wildcats (2-0), ranked by West Side Lax as the best high school team west of the Mississippi, took down rival San Ramon Valley (1-1) on the road on Friday night, behind two goals and three assists from senior attackman JW McGovern and three goals from junior midfielder Matt Emery. Senior attackman Chad Cohan also had three goals and two assists, and SI snapped a two-game winning streak by the Wolves in the series between the two teams.

Thanks to the coaches and players of both teams for producing such high level lacrosse in this tremendous rivalry!