The co-op agreement between Salisbury High School and Allentown Central Catholic has worked out well for both schools.

Central Catholic has both boys and girls lacrosse teams, but had no facility to play in. Salisbury has student-athletes who wanted to play lacrosse, but no team for them to play on.

The agreement allows Salisbury to have students join the lacrosse teams at Central Catholic and the Vikings and Vikettes can use the field at Salisbury High School.

One of the players who took advantage of the agreement is Salisbury senior Jack Foley. Foley would have been limited in developing himself as a player without the relationship with Central Catholic and now, he has grown into being a team captain with the Vikings and will be playing in states.

“Jack wasn’t playing lacrosse two years ago,” said Central Catholic head coach Will Odenthal. “He came to us after playing up to eighth grade and it’s a great story. It’s sort of a Sports Illustrated story. It’s crazy. The kid came out with a short stick [used by attackers and midfielders] and I thought he should have a long stick [defender]. We put a pole in his hand, and he picked it up and his stick work is really unbelievable. It’s really amazing.”

The Vikings downed Northwestern Lehigh 17-6 in the 2A district finals to advance to states.

The game was a little revenge for the Vikings, who fell to Northwestern in last year’s final. Foley had his usual strong defensive game, which he saw as a team success.

“I think it’s one of the best defensive efforts we played all year,” said Foley. “We only allowed one goal in the second half against a talented offense, I think we played fantastic. We had a great game plan coming into the game and it was an overall great team effort our offense was amazing and our defense was absolutely great.”

With Central Catholic up 8-5 early in the third quarter, the Vikings found some offense from an unusual source in Foley. The defensemen worked his way through opposing defenders and was able to put a shot on goal that sailed past goalie Bailen Smargiassi to open the Central Catholic lead to four goals.

The goal helped the Vikings team effort, but it was also a huge senior season moment for Foley as it gave him the first goal of his high school career.

“It was awesome,” he said. “It felt fantastic. It was great to finally get one, especially in a game like this.”

“I was so happy for him,” said Odenthal. “He’s a great kid. He’s a great leader and he’s a great teammate. This team has worked as hard as any that I have ever coached, and he has been a part of that.”

Another Salisbury student, Gavin Cerco is also on the Central Catholic roster, but did not play in last week’s game.

Foley and his teammates will now battle in the PIAA tournament that begins on June 4th. The Vikings will play the runner-up team from District 12. That team has not yet been determined with the championship game being played this week.

Salisbury also has a player on the girls’ lacrosse team at Central Catholic. Freshman Ellie Schneider is on the Vikettes team that went to the district finals before falling to Southern Lehigh.

“Ellie is kind of like a utility knife for us,” said Central Catholic coach Colleen Corcoran. “I can put her in on offense, defense, really anywhere we need her to play, and I know she is going to handle the job for us.”

Schneider finished the season with three goals for Central Catholic and will likely have an expanded role with the team next season.