Saints trounce Huskies

St. Anne’s-Belfield was missing a major piece of its puzzle Tuesday afternoon with senior goalie Zach Starsia out.
But sophomore Austin Geisler, who’d never played a varsity game in his career, filled in admirably in the cage and St. Anne’s rolled to a 16-3 victory over Flint Hill Academy in the TILT state tournament quarterfinals.
Starsia, who had six saves in a 13-5 victory over Covenant Thursday, was struggling with his breathing on Friday afternoon and sought medical attention. During an examination, a doctor found blood in Starsia’s lungs, eventually diagnosing it as a pulmonary embolism caused by a blood clot, according to St. Anne’s head coach Doug Tarring. Starsia did make it to the Flint Hill game.
“It was a pretty serious situation, and the good news is that he’s healthy and will recover nicely,” Tarring said. “To have him here with the guys meant a lot to us.”
Starsia won’t return for the rest of the season. Instead, the Saints will rely on the unproven Geisler, who had 16 saves against Flint Hill in the win and didn’t allow a single goal in his time in the cage.
“It’s an unfortunate situation, but I just had to step up,” Geisler said. “Coach has told me to be ready all year and I guess I was ready for this one. The excitement just took over.”
Flint Hill broke through against junior backup goalie Tori Payne, who just started playing lacrosse this week after Starsia’s health problems surfaced. Payne managed a save and surrendered just three goals.
Geisler has backed up Starsia all season, but had played only sparingly behind the senior keeper. Still, STAB’s staff and team appeared confident in the untested sophomore. As he exited the field with just under five minutes to play, the Saints surrounded the young goalie to celebrate the impending win.
“Austin really rose to the challenge and I thought the kids really rallied around him,” Tarring said. “The way you take the pressure off a goalie who’s starting his first game in the playoffs is to give him a lot of help on the offensive end. We wanted to make sure he had a cushion.”
St. Anne’s scored in bunches too, jumping out to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter and a 12-0 lead at the half. Jack Thomasson poured in five goals while Harry Snyder posted a hat trick. Ryan Mattie had a pair of goals.
Owen Van Arsdale and Andrew McCullough set the table throughout the game. Van Arsdale had four assists to go with his goal and McCullough also dished out four assists. Long-stick defender Charles Shreck had a goal and an assist on breakaways.
St. Anne’s will take on Collegiate on Friday at 7:30 after the Cougars beat Paul VI 18-10 on Tuesday night.