St. Joe's Prep Drops Road Contest to Gilman

BALTIMORE, MD. – St. Joseph’s Prep fell to Gilman School (MD) 11-3 on Friday. 

The Prep traveled to Baltimore to take on the Greyhounds in one of the hardest matchups of the season for Head Coach Mark Princehorn’s Hawks.  Princehorn has been stacking the out-of-league schedule with tough opponents for the Prep throughout his tenure as head coach, most notably taking on Springfield Delco, The Hill School, Perkiomen School, and Radnor in 2025. Gilman came in with tons of  Division 1 talent and senior experience that proved to be too much for the Prep.

“A program with excellence, tradition, rich history, tons of talent. It’s a game that’s going to force you to challenge yourself. And it’s a game that’s gonna make you forced to be the best version of yourself. And, you learn a lot in a game like this. Talented team, so well coached. You had to come out and play a really good game, a really smart game. And unfortunately, we didn’t do that, but you love it because this team tests you in such a way that you can go back and extract a lot of positives from it. Certainly grow from it, certainly learn from it, and ultimately, regardless, come out and be a better lacrosse team,” Prinehorn said about booking the Gilman game. 

This is not the only testing game Princehorn booked for the Prep’s out-of-league schedule this spring. On March 31st, the Prep will take on Garnet Valley, and will also take on Downingtown East, Springfield Delco, and Radnor later in the season. The Prep is no stranger to facing adversity outside of the Philadelphia Catholic League. The Hawks didn’t win many of their out-of-league games last season before taking down Radnor in the last non-conference game of the season. 

In the game, the Prep’s defense efforts were solid to say the least. While little mistakes cost them in the second half, they did play an overall solid game. However, the offense started strong, but had problems scoring down the stretch. 

Despite the loss, Princehorn believes that this game will help the offense moving forward.

“Well, you’re not gonna see teams like this on our schedule. Lacrosse here in Baltimore and the MIAA is the best there is. A team is loaded with Division I talent, and it’s going to force our guys to be better, play at this level, and be a team at this level. It requires you raising the bar, and that’s exactly what the message is. It’s just finding ways to get better, finding ways to improve. And we’re gonna do that.” 

There were promising moments for the Hawks on Friday as Luke Quigley ‘27 buried his first goal of the season, while Mason Warrick ‘27 proved to be one of the best young attackmen in Pennsylvania. On the contrary, 27 turnovers on the day killed the Prep throughout the game.

The Hawks are now 1-1 and will face Archbishop Wood on Tuesday in their PCL season opener.