Expand<\/a><\/p>\nSCRANTON \u2014 Scranton Prep found itself trailing Abington Heights by three goals twice in the District 2 Class 2A boys lacrosse final Thursday night, including with 4\u00bd minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
With the district championship and their undefeated season on the line, the Cavaliers refused to lose.<\/p>\n
Will McPartland scored the tying goal with 24 seconds left in regulation and Mackey Lynett netted the game-winner 1:13 into sudden-death overtime to give Scranton Prep a thrilling 15-14 come-from-behind win over the Comets in an intense battle at the Loyola Athletic Complex.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing about these guys and the culture of Scranton Prep lacrosse is never give up. Play till the end,\u201d Scranton Prep coach Keith Toolan said. \u201cThis year we\u2019ve had to win twice in overtime and again tonight. The guys in the huddle knew and had that look in their eyes that it wasn\u2019t over; that we were still going to win this game. It came true again. It\u2019s an all-around, everybody doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynett finished with six goals and McPartland five for the Cavaliers (19-0), who advance to the PIAA Class 2A tournament that begins June 2 against the District 3 runner-up, either Lampeter-Strasburg or Lower Dauphin. Owen McPartland and Jack Rully added two goals apiece.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew coming into this game that it was like this last time (we played Abington Heights), so anything could happen,\u201d Lynett said. \u201cBig credit to the defense for making big-time stops at big periods. Offensively, we knew we just had to execute and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christopher Bohn and Gavin Anders scored four goals apiece for Abington Heights (16-4). Braghan Pallis chipped in three goals, while Logan Fedor, Gavin Lindsay and Rodman Azar had one goal apiece for the Comets, who also advance to the PIAA tournament. They will open against the District 4-6 Subregional champion, either Selinsgrove or Bellefonte.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just didn\u2019t find a way tonight unfortunately,\u201d Abington Heights coach Eric Janiszewski said. \u201cWe struggled winning faceoffs. It\u2019s hard not winning the faceoff and gaining that possession again and again. You\u2019re fighting to get the ball back. Unfortunately, we just couldn\u2019t keep up the pressure and we threw some bad passes. We let them back in it because we weren\u2019t making the best choices.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we fought hard and did the best we could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tied at halftime, 7-7, Azar, Pallis and Bohn scored for Abington Heights in the opening five minutes of the third quarter to take a 10-7 lead. But Scranton Prep rallied to within 11-10 after three quarters and Lynett scored off a feed from Rully 1:53 into the fourth quarter to tie the score at 11.<\/p>\n
Bohn scored three straight goals, the last of which came with 4:26 left, to put Abington Heights ahead, 14-11.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just knew we had to stay together as a family,\u201d Lynett said. \u201cIf we lost our heads, we were going to lose the game. So the biggest thing was staying together as a family and staying calm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rully started the comeback 13 seconds later when he scored off a pass from Will McPartland. Moments after Scranton Prep goalie Packy James made a save on a shot by Lindsay, the Cavaliers went down the other end of the field and got to within 14-13 when Lynett scored off a Will McPartland assist with 2:42 left.<\/p>\n
Abington Heights had possession in the final minute when Scranton Prep forced a turnover to gain possession with 49 seconds left.<\/p>\n
Following a timeout, Lynett passed to Braedon McPartland in front of the goal. He turned to shoot and had his shot deflect off the post. The ball went to Will McPartland at the right of the goal and he knocked it in for the tying goal at 11:36 and sent the game to overtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shot banged off the post unlucky and it popped up right in the air,\u201d Will McPartland said. \u201cI had it and just dunked it real fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just shows how much heart we have, how much we want to play for one another and how much we want to win. Not matter what we\u2019ve got each other\u2019s back. That\u2019s all that matters at the end of the day, and we came out on top because of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the extra session, Abington Heights won the faceoff and had the first possession. But Scranton Prep forced a turnover and Donato Rinaldi picked up the loose ball to give the Cavaliers possession.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe forced a shot opportunity instead of moving the ball until we found an opening,\u201d Janiszewski said. \u201cWe have a habit of trying to what we call \u2018heroing\u2019 the ball. Dodging through too many people and unfortunately that doesn\u2019t usually work out well when a team swarms when you do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the winning sequence, Abington Heights actually knocked the ball loose. But Lynett scooped it up near midfield, raced into Abington Heights territory and bounced a shot that went over Naholnik, who had dropped to his knees, and just tucked under the crossbar. There was some uncertainty if the ball went in and, for good measure, Will McPartland collected the rebound and put it in the cage. But it, indeed, was Lynett\u2019s goal and it set off a wild celebration between the players and large contingent of Scranton Prep fans on hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as the ball\u2019s on the ground, you know you\u2019ve got to get there,\u201d Lynett said. \u201cI was just lucky enough to get there and score the game-winning goal. I did not know if it went in. I saw it bounce off and then I turned around and saw Will McPartland shoot it in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Will McPartland: \u201cWhatever happened. It doesn\u2019t matter if Mackey made it or I made it. I\u2019m just happy we won the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, both teams will wait and prepare for the state tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, we have eight days, 10 days off,\u201d Toolan said. \u201cWe\u2019ll recuperate and celebrate this one for a little bit and get back to work next week. District 3 is an unbelievable district, so I know we\u2019ll have our hands full with whoever loses that district championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Janiszewski believes his team will bounce back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough loss, but at the same time, it\u2019s not like we played bad,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should be Selinsgrove and we beat them by 10 goals already in the first game of the season and we\u2019re a much better team now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abington Heights \u2018 Logan Bohn defends Scranton Prep\u2019s Jack Rully during the District 2 Class 2A championship game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-199641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n![\"Abington](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STT-L-SPAHLACROSSE-052126-02.jpg?w=620\")
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