A summer of club lacrosse is paying huge dividends for George Briggs, Logan Calhoun and Joe Clark.
More importantly, it's yielding big results for the Hershey boys' lacrosse team. The Trojans' three-pronged attack of Briggs, Calhoun and Clark had their skill and chemistry on display Thursday night at Lower Dauphin Middle School's Falcon Field.
The three standouts combined for 11 goals and 13 assists as fourth-seed Hershey rolled to a 19-8 win over Kennard-Dale in the District 3 quarterfinals.
Hershey (19-2), which was coming off a dramatic 12-11 (OT) win over Lancaster-Lebanon champ Hempfield in the opening round, advances to the District 3 semifinals for the first time since 2009. The Trojans will face top seed Manheim Twp. on Tuesday back at LD with opening faceoff set for 5 p.m.
"It started with great defense, great fundamental defense," said Briggs, who scored four goals and five assists.
"Once we get possession, we feel like we can work it against teams. It starts with [goalie] Kyle [Kondracki] playing well and the defense playing well and getting us good transition."
Calhoun also scored four goals and five assists, while Clark chipped in three goals and three assists for the Trojans, who also clinched their first PIAA playoff berth since 2009.
"I saw film on [Kennard-Dale] and I thought they were a very fast team and very disciplined team," said Hershey coach John Schein.
"I was worried where our level would be and that we'd still be on the high from playing Hempfield. We came out really fast and then you could see we sat back a little after that, looking for the home run play, instead of playing our offense."
Leading 2-1 in the early going, Hershey went on a quick six goal run to take control of the Rams (14-6). Calhoun and Briggs scored twice in the run, while Jake and Justin Wilson also added scores to make it 8-1.
Kennard-Dale stayed even in the second quarter, but still trailed 11-5 at the half. Hershey then cranked up the offense again in the third quarter with six more goals.
Briggs, Clark, David Sickler and Karl Van Blargen scored in the final 4:18 of the third as Hershey took a 17-7 advantage into the final quarter.
Defensively, Sickler had seven ground balls and Connor Donahue had five. In addition, Matt Stewart was 17-for-23 on faceoffs and had a team-high nine ground balls.
Jesse Schonbrunner led Kennard-Dale with three goals and two assists and Freddy Seitz chipped in two scores.