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By: Kate Harman
The box score won’t tell you that a single player dominated on Friday night for Upper Dublin – there won’t be a number that stands out.
Instead, it’ll show you a nine-point performance from sophomore forward Jackie Vargas, eight points from freshman Dayna Balasa, and seven from another, Jess Polin.
The box score won’t show you the pressure the Cardinals put on Abington in the PIAA Class 6A state quarterfinal contest. It won’t show you the grit the team demonstrated to survive a furious comeback from the Ghosts.
As for senior Maggie Weglos, if you just looked at the box score – you’d see six points – but you might not understand the impact the guard had on her team.
You may not understand that if it wasn’t for her leadership and poise, they may not have walked out of the Bensalem gymnasium with a 36-31 victory.
Oh, and she ended up hitting the game winning shot, too.
“I thought we took our lead tonight from Maggie Welgos,” coach Morgan Funsten said. “Defensively she held [Sam] Brusha to 1 and mentally she is what kept us in it. She happened to make the game winning shot when we got down 1.
“If you could hear the stuff Maggie was saying to the girls out of the timeouts we were taking out of necessary to save possession, staying positive,” he added. “She didn’t guarantee victory, but her mentality, I felt very comfortable that we were going to win the game because of how she was acting.”
The Cardinals (25-5) jumped out to a 22-9 lead over the Ghosts (22-8), as Upper Dublin dominated the first 16 minutes of play. But Abington was a new team after the break, amping up the pressure and getting better looks offensively. A few key three-pointers got the Ghosts within striking distance and the group led for the first time all contest with a little under 5 ½ minutes remaining.
“She [Weglos] kept saying, ‘It’s not over, it’s not over’. Even with 5 seconds left she was saying ‘it’s not over, it’s not over,’” Polin said. “She really knows how to put you in the right mindset, get you to keep playing, not get you in the wrong mindset, not get cocky – she’s great.”
With her team down a point late in the game, Welgos drove baseline and pulled up for a short jumper.
It was a lead the Cardinals would never surrender.
“If I just stood out there and dribbled, nothing was going to happen except a five-second call. I thought, ‘what the heck’ just drive in and see if you can get anything,” Weglos said. “I found an opening and I felt like I got it off right. It felt good leaving the hand, I had felt good going into the move. You just have to brush off all the bad plays because that’s just going to hold you back if you think about it. I can be a scoring threat when I want to be – I just went into the play and shot it.”
Thoughts and feelings won’t make it into the box score either, but the shot dropping through the netting?
Two points.
Good enough for a trip to the Final Four.
@Ka_Harman
KateRHarman@gmail.com
Abington 4 5 14 8 – 31
Upper Dublin 5 17 2 12 – 36
A: Camryn Lexow 11, Kassondra Brown 8, Britney James 5, Miranda Liebtag 3, Tamia Wessels 3, Sam Brusha 1
UD: Jackie Vargas 9, Dayna Balasa 8, Jess Polin 7, Maggie Welgos 6, Kara Grebe 4, Nicole Kaiser 2