Haverford School

Twelve players from the Philadelphia area punched tickets to the NCAA men's lacrosse Final Four after wins Sunday at PPL Park in Chester. Notre Dame (13-2) outlasted Virginia (12-4) in the fourth quarter to knock out the defending national champion, 12-10, in front of 10,770 fans. In the other quarterfinal at PPL Park, Duke dominated Colgate for a 17-6 victory. Notre Dame will play Loyola-Maryland in the semifinals Saturday in Foxborough, Mass. Duke (15-4) will meet Maryland.

Jim Fenerty earned his 500th career victory as a high school basketball coach on Friday night. And he wasn't even there. The Germantown Academy coach spent more than 32 seasons racking up 499 wins. But earlier this week, on the eve of his latest century mark, Fenerty fell ill while teaching an early-morning civil liberties class to GA seniors. His right side went numb. Some feared he was having a stroke. He was admitted to Abington Memorial Hospital, where he was diagnosed with Polycythemia vera, a bone marrow disease that leads to an abnormal increase in blood cell count.

Chestnut Hill Academy's Dan Rosenbaum is best known for his hitting, especially for the way the ball flies off his bat. The up-and-coming junior is also not too shabby on the mound, as he showed in Tuesday's Inter-Ac League showdown with Haverford School. Rosenbaum, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound righthander who doubles as a third baseman, held the Fords to four hits over six innings as the host Blue Devils triumphed, 7-4, and maintained sole possession of first place. "I was hitting spots with my fastball, and my curveball was also working pretty well," he said.

Haverford School's players may never get their mud-caked uniforms completely clean, but don't expect the effects of their latest loss to linger. Coach Ron Algeo said the Fords would recover mentally from Saturday night's rainy, 28-6 homecoming loss to Chestnut Hill Academy. "We were prepared for a closer game physically," Algeo said. "We had a great week of practice. The kids didn't give up ever, ever, ever. They will be ready to come back Monday. " The Fords (0-4) may not have any emotional scars from Saturday's defeat, but their physical condition is another thing.

Swimming coach Bill Palmer thought his team at The Haverford School would win only three meets this year. The Fords have already exceeded his expectations by winning four of their first five meets, two last week. Haverford School edged visiting Haverford High on Wednesday, 41-35, in a nonleague meet. One day later, Haverford School beat Upper Darby, 97-67. "The boys have been surprising me," Palmer said. "It's a great team with a lot of character. These boys are doing everything a coach can ask them to do. " Palmer didn't have to stress the need for a win in the freestyle relay against Haverford High.

One of the best shows in area wrestling will take place Friday with the annual battle between the Haverford School and Episcopal Academy. The bout, this season at Episcopal, usually decides which will claim the Inter-Academic League title. The two teams know each other well. Both clubs participated in the Haverford High and Radnor tournaments. Each team has been scouted by the other. And wrestlers from both teams practice together throughout the season. "I think we have a real shot at them," Episcopal coach Crawford Hill said.

Paul S. Bernstorf, who led the Columbus (Ohio) Academy to a 35-3 record over the last three years, was named head football coach of The Haverford School on Tuesday. For Bernstorf, who coached Columbus to a 14-0 mark and a state title in 1987, The Haverford School job will mean a return home - geographically. He is a 1976 graduate of Haverford High. "I've had a pretty successful career as a player and a coach," Bernstorf said in a telephone interview from Columbus on Tuesday, "only because I played under and with a lot of good people in the Philadelphia area.

When two winless teams face each other five weeks into a football season, one is guaranteed to enjoy its happiest moment of the season. Such was the case when the Haverford School went west to Carson Long Military Institute and its new football program. Luckily for Haverford, the trip was worth it. The Fords returned home with a 33-0 victory and a new outlook. "This first win will set the tone for the rest of the year," lineman Pat Schaffer said after the Fords raised their record to 1-4. "We got the team some momentum.

Episcopal Academy scored 15 goals in its final game of year. Jon Garino didn't account for any of them, yet still managed to be the dominant player in what Churchmen coach Andrew Hayes called the "biggest" win in program history. Garino won 20 of 28 face-offs to lead Episcopal to a 15-11 upset of top-seeded Haverford School and clinch its first Inter-Ac Invitational lacrosse championship in front of a sellout crowd Thursday night at Cabrini College. Garino's ability to dictate play by winning 71 percent of the draws allowed the second-seeded Churchmen (18-5)

Twelve players from the Philadelphia area punched tickets to the NCAA men's lacrosse Final Four after wins Sunday at PPL Park in Chester. Notre Dame (13-2) outlasted Virginia (12-4) in the fourth quarter to knock out the defending national champion, 12-10, in front of 10,770 fans. In the other quarterfinal at PPL Park, Duke dominated Colgate for a 17-6 victory. Notre Dame will play Loyola-Maryland in the semifinals Saturday in Foxborough, Mass. Duke (15-4) will meet Maryland.

Twelve players from the Philadelphia area punched tickets to the NCAA men's lacrosse Final Four after wins Sunday at PPL Park in Chester. Notre Dame (13-2) outlasted Virginia (12-4) in the fourth quarter to knock out the defending national champion, 12-10, in front of 10,770 fans. In the other quarterfinal at PPL Park, Duke dominated Colgate for a 17-6 victory. Notre Dame will play Loyola-Maryland in the semifinals Saturday in Foxborough, Mass. Duke (15-4) will meet Maryland.

Henry Blynn scored twice and set up two other goals to lift Haverford School over visiting Episcopal Academy, 9-6, on Tuesday, as the Fords completed a second straight undefeated Inter-Ac League lacrosse season. The Fords (18-1 overall, 8-0 league) entered the game ranked No. 1 in the state by phillylacrosse.com. Episcopal (15-5, 4-4) is No. 5 in the state. Will McNamara and Zach Rego aided the win with a pair of goals and one assist each. Goalie Jake Landman turned away nine shots.

The Katie Samson Lacrosse Festival, in its 12th year, takes place Saturday at Radnor. Samson, a 1998 Radnor graduate who served as the team's lacrosse goalie, was paralyzed while sledding at a park the winter after she helped Middlebury (Vt.) capture the 1999 NCAA Division III title. In light of Samson's life-altering injury, the Katie Samson Foundation, with the festival at its core, was founded in 2001 to help raise money for spinal-cord injury research. This year's schedule includes the most teams in the event's history, 54 (28 girls, 26 boys)

Henry Blynn didn't even have a chance to celebrate. As his shot from the right point reached the net for his second goal of the first half, the Haverford School attackman was driven to the Radnor turf by a Conestoga defender. The hit left Blynn dazed enough to not even realize that an unnecessary-roughness penalty had been signaled. With his chance at celebration stripped, the senior created plenty of more opportunities, as he scored five more times for a game-high seven goals and Haverford School topped Conestoga, 13-8, in the marquee boys' lacrosse game Saturday at the 12th annual Katie Samson Festival.

The bleachers had long been vacated. Players and coaches from the visiting Haverford School already had jumped into their cars or onto the team bus for a happy ride home. Even most of the Malvern Prep players had hit the showers after a deflating, 9-4 defeat by the Fords last Tuesday. Team captains Jack Sheridan and Eddie Morris remained. They sat on a sideline bench with glazed looks, still wearing their uniforms and pads, seemingly searching for answers. Malvern coach David Metzbower did his best to provide them, reviewing with two of his top seniors what had gone wrong.

As Sam Rohr ran off the field for a substitution in the second quarter of the Haverford School's lacrosse game at Malvern Prep on Tuesday, Fords coach John Nostrant paced nimbly up the sideline and stopped Rohr, one of five team captains. "Are you a senior?" Nostrant asked. Nod yes. "Then play like one. " After a tight 3-3 opening half, in which Rohr incurred the wrath of his coaches more than once, the Penn-bound midfielder got his head in check . . . literally.

Haverford School posted its sixth straight win, as the visiting Fords topped La Salle, 11-6, Thursday in a nonleague matchup of two of the area's top lacrosse teams. Zach Rego highlighted Haverford's balanced attack with three goals and two assists. Gavin McBride added three goals, and Henry Blynn scored twice with two assists. Jake Landman played a strong game in net, as he turned away 10 shots to seal the win. The Fords defense limited Matt Rambo, La Salle's top attackman, to one goal.