RADNOR – There’s a higher goal than winning a game at the Katie Sansom Lacrosse Festival.
Saturday’s festival at Radnor High School, the ninth annual, featured fifty-two teams – 26 boys and 26 girls, making it the largest single day lacrosse festival in the country. Proceeds of the festival are donated to spinal cord injury research, patient care and quality of life improvements.
While everyone participating in the festival is united by a singular cause, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t get intense when the games begin.
It does.
Abington found itself in a war with the Baldwin School in a contest that pitted a pair of schools ranked ninth and 10th respectively in the latest Media Rankings.
It took overtime to determine a winner, and it was Baldwin super soph Sloan Warren turning a pass from Maggie Mae Shields into a goal 29 seconds into OT, giving the Bears a dramatic 14-13 win.
It was not the outcome the Ghosts had hoped for as they enter the stretch run of the regular season.
“I’m immensely disappointed,” Abington coach Julie Martinez said. “This is not a game we should have lost. We did not play hard. We were outhustled.
“We shut down their big player (Warren) – she had two goals going into overtime. Big players step up in big games. My big players did not step up today.”
While the Ghosts limited the high-scoring Warren to three goals, they were not nearly as successful trying to contain Shields, who had a hand in 10 of her team’s 14 goals. The gifted senior midfielder had four goals – including the tying goal with 27 seconds remaining – and six assists.
Not surprisingly, defense was the greatest cause of concern for Martinez.
“The most goals we have allowed in any game the last two years is 10, and we allowed 14 today,” she said. “We have lost four games in the last two years by one goal.
“This is our second overtime loss of the season. There are winners and there are losers, and we need to have a winning attitude. It needs to be for 50 minutes in a game, and we didn’t have it today.”
The loss was the second of the season for the Ghosts – the first also came in overtime, that one to Archbishop Wood.
“Our Archbishop Wood loss was a wake-up call for what we needed to do at that point to jumpstart our season,” Martinez said. “I thought we were a different team, heading in a different direction.
“Now we’re right back where we were.”
The Ghosts took a 2-1 lead when Carli Fitzgerald found Kristen Dunphey for a goal less than two minutes into the game, but the Bears came right back to knot the score when Shields found Stephanie Salvitti for the score.
It looked as though the Ghosts were taking charge after back-to-back goals by Kailee Ashby and Kate Cooper, but that two-goal lead was erased rather quickly.
Baldwin knotted the score 4-4 after a goalie by Emily Acker (Shields assist), and back-to-back goals by Shields and Sloan (Shields assist) put the Bears on top 6-4 with 6:37 remaining in the opening half. Martinez called a quick timeout, and her team responded with a goal by Ashby (Courtney Cox assist). Ashby finished the day with a game-high six goals.
Shields answered with a goal for the Bears before Cooper, who had five goals, scored, making it a 7-6 game at the half. A major problem in the half was the Ghosts’ inability to win the draw, but that, according to Martinez, was just a symptom of a much bigger problem.
“We did not play hard today,” she said. “Defensively, there were so many holes. I came in with a scouting report that explained what Baldwin would do, but my team did not react.
“They let the same girls do the same things that I told them to dodge and avoid. Credit to Baldwin – they came here ready to play. Abington did not.”
A quick shot by Ashby (Cox assist) knotted the score early in the second half, but the Bears led 9-7 after Shields found Sloan and then Alice Matthai for goals. The Bears upped that lead to three (12-9) after another Sloan to Matthai connection with 6:37 remaining in regulation.
A minute later, Cooper scored, and when Ashby (Cooper assist) connected on an impossible low shot, the Bears’ lead had been trimmed to one. The two teams were deadlocked after Cooper connected on a strong shot at the 2:09 mark.
A huge takeaway by Liz Wilson on the defensive end set up a passing sequence from Jen Kelly to Dunphey to Fitzgerald for the score that put the Ghosts on top 13-12 with 1:05 remaining in regulation. The Bears had an answer, however, as Shields scored the equalizer with 27 seconds remaining.
Making the loss even more difficult to swallow was the fact that the Ghosts had possession in the opening seconds of OT but lost it when they were whistled for a false start. The Bears made it hurt when Shields found Sloan wide open on the right corner of the net for the game winner.
BALDWIN 14, ABINGTON 13 (OT)
Abington 6 7 0-13
Baldwin 7 5 1-13
Goals/Assists: Abington – Kailee Ashby 6-0, Kate Cooper 5-0, Carli Fitzgerald 1-1, Kristen Dunphey 1-0. Baldwin – Maggie Mae Shields 4-6, Sloan Warren 3-1, Alica Matthai 3-0, Hilary Gray 1-0, Emily Acker 1-0.
Shots: A-26, B-24
Saves: Alisha Aquilino (A) 9, Ali Pedersen (B) 10.
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