Hatboro-Horsham was the lone SOL girls’ lacrosse team still standing after Thursday’s District One second round games.
#11 HATBORO-HORSHAM 21, #6 WEST CHESTER HENDERSON 19
Lizzy Carr’s line for Thursday’s game included eight goals and three assists. Teammate Cortnee Daley added five goals, two assists, four ground balls and 11 draw controls, and Nicole Beck had four goals and two assists.
Those dazzling numbers might suggest that the Hatters won in a cakewalk, and for a while, it looked as though they would, but the Warriors – minus starting goalie Jill Edwards (leadership conference) and head coach Kim Jackson (family emergency) – roared back from an early seven-goal deficit to trail by just one (19-18) with 8:04 remaining in regulation.
“We just made mistakes at critical moments,” coach Duncan Swezey said. “We stepped out of bounds, and we had swings on checks and got two yellow cards in the last (eight) minutes.”
“Mistakes are gigantic,” Daley agreed. “It always has repercussions. If you make a mistake and don’t try and get it back, it just kills you.
“We need to make less mistakes, less fouls and just be smarter.”
Despite watching their lead all but evaporate, the Hatters would not be denied. Twice in the game’s closing minutes, Carr came around goal for the score, all but sealing the Warriors’ fate.
“I just feel like if you have a step on your girl – pretty much I would just take her,” Carr said.
Early on, there was absolutely nothing to suggest that the Hatters would be fighting for their playoff lives down the stretch. As a matter of fact, watching the Hatters race to an 8-1 lead just over 10 minutes into the game, a running clock seemed more realistic than a tightly contested game.
The Hatters were on a bona fide roll.
A goal by Carr after Daley drew a charge put the Hatters on top 2-1, and a minute later, Carr found Caroline Hagan for the score. A free position goal by Beck was followed by a Daley goal. Goals by Beck (Julie McKay assist) and Daley made it an 8-1 game and capped an impressive 7-0 Hatter run during a scintillating five-minute stretch.
“I was really surprised how well we were working together,” Carr said.
The Warriors answered with a run of their own, outscoring the Hatters 6-1 to make it a 9-7 game at the 2:43 mark.
Daley won the ensuing draw, and Beck found Laura Cresta for a goal nine seconds later. The Hatters closed out the half with a 3-1 spurt and took a 12-8 lead into the intermission.
“It was all about the draw today, it was absolutely about possession,” Swezey said. “At this level, good players are so hard to stop in an open field when they have momentum going in.
“You can play a team with two strong players, and they can keep you in the game.”
The Warriors managed to stay in the game, thanks the efforts of Kate Fry (nine goals, two assists) and Katie O’Donnell (six goals).
“They kept the ball between themselves probably 50 percent of the time,” Swezey said. “Katie (O’Donnell) just doesn’t get tired. I’m waiting for her to get tired, but she didn’t get tired.”
The Hatters led 14-8 after back-to-back goals by Daley and Beck to open the second half. They still led by six (18-12) with 14:54 remaining, but the Warriors didn’t go down quietly. The Hatters, however, refused to be denied.
“This feels incredible,” Daley said. “For the past two years, we have lost in the second round, and we wanted to win this game so badly.
“We don’t only want to win this we want to go far.”
“Especially since it’s our last season together,” Carr added. “We don’t want our season to end.”
The Hatters (18-2) will face third-seeded Radnor in a quarterfinal game on Saturday at 11 a.m. at West Chester East High School.
#7 STRATH HAVEN 10, #10 COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 9
Rock North staged a heroic second half comeback, rallying from an 8-4 halftime deficit to take a 9-8 lead only to watch it slip away.
The game was a rematch of the regular season finale between the two squads – a 17-12 Strath Haven win.
“I’d rather have it end like this than how it ended the last game because this game was so close,” senior Kara Magley said. “It was within our reach. We were right there. It was really disappointing.”
What was the difference this time around?
“Today we pretty much came out ready to play,” Magley said. “The last game it seemed like we were asleep, and they just caught us off guard. I don’t know what it was, but we had a really off day. We had a bad practice the day before.
“Today we came out with a completely different mindset. Near the end of the game the last time we started to pick it up, and we wanted to start where we left off and go from there this time. We knew we could do so much better than we did in the last game, and we wanted to prove ourselves and show that this is the real us. The last time it was just an off day. We gave it our all.”
Magley closed out her high school career with another brilliant performance, contributing six goals and five draw controls.
“She played unbelievable,” co-coach Pat Toner said.
Hannah Plappert contributed a goal and assist while Natalie Maher and Erica Green both added single goals. Molly Doyle had an assist.
“I was just so proud of how we played,” Toner said. “It definitely could have gone either way.
“It was a great game. They are a good team.”
Strath Haven held a 19-15 advantage in shots over the Indians, who closed out their season with a 15-4 record.
“This year was so memorable,” Magley said. “I can’t even describe it. Last year beating Radnor (in districts) was really memorable too, but this year our whole team was just so close.
“We all were inseparable. We would do everything together, and it’s been like that all four years. But this year it didn’t feel like a team, it felt more like a family. This year we had a really nice balance of having fun and goofing around, but we knew when we had to be serious. It was an amazing year. My senior year – I couldn’t have asked for a better team to play with.”
While it was memorable for the players, it was equally memorable for their coaches.
“A game is a game, but I’ve just sobbed since I got home,” Toner said. “I don’t want to say good-bye, and they felt the same way.
“You miss the kids. You’re going to have more wins, and you’re going to have more losses, and I want to win, but it’s the kids and getting something out of them and having them enjoy themselves while understanding the whole point of sports. It’s to be competitive, it’s to get to a level of excellence and have pride in yourself and to work as a team.
“It’s a microcosm of life. If you can’t do that in life – if you can’t enjoy yourself and be successful, what do you have? This is a great foundation for the kids for life to just learn to work together.”
#8 CONESTOGA 9, #9 UPPER DUBLIN 8
The Flying Cardinals trailed 5-3 at halftime and actually appeared to tie the score in the game’s final minute, but the goal was called back for foul against the Pioneers. Instead, the Cardinals were awarded an eight-meter shot, and the closest they came to knotting the score was a shot off the post in the game’s waning seconds.
“I always tell them – it’s a game of inches,” coach Dee Cross said. “It was down to the wire. It just didn’t go our way today.
The Cardinals, who fell to the Pioneers 14-9 in the final week of the regular season, actually went on top 8-7 only to see the Pioneers answer with back-to-back goals to go on top 9-8.
“It was one of those games that was back and forth,” Cross said. “I could not have asked for more effort out of anybody. It just wasn’t meant to be, but it was a much improved effort from when we played them last Monday.
“It was a very exciting game. It was change of possession a lot. It was a great game to watch. Unfortunately, they scored one more than us.”
Kelly Cross certainly did her part to try and keep Upper Dublin’s season alive, contributing four goals, two assists and 10 draw controls.
“She really stepped it up again and tried to carry the team like she did last year in the playoffs,” coach Dee Cross said. “I could not have asked for more out of her.”
The Flying Cardinals closed out their season with a 16-4 record. Three of those losses were to teams that have advanced to the final eight in the district. The other came at the hands of nationally-ranked Vero Beach (Fla.).
“The seniors have helped raise the level of our team at Upper Dublin over the last couple of years and really have done a great job, challenging us to just play as much as you can,” Cross said. “I’m very proud of the senior group.
“I just felt really bad for them that it was their last game together. They have done such a great job.”
#4 HARRITON 12, #13 NORTH PENN 7
The Maidens outshot their hosts by three but still found themselves on the short end of the score.
“The difference in the game was that we were executing, getting shots and opportunities, but we just didn’t finish our shots,” coach Jami Wilus Behm said. “They started off the game –they won the first two draw controls, and they went straight down and scored. They had a lot of speed in the midfield where they were able to transition the ball.
“We hesitated a little bit on the offensive end and allowed them to set up their defense rather than pushing the fast break. We played hard for the whole game, so we can’t fault our effort at all. We were scrapping and clawing to the very end.”
Senior Rachel Shaw led the Maidens with the hat trick while Brenda McDermott added two goals and two assists. Lauren Green and Tara Rogers both added one goal.
Jenna Stover was credited with eight saves in goal.
“Jenna Stover played really well in goal. She definitely kept us in the game,” Wilus Behm said. “The effort was there today, but they really made their shots, and we missed a couple of point blank opportunities where we could have closed to the game to two goals or one goal.
“Every time we got to within three goals we got either denied a shot or turned the ball over, and they went down and scored. They had a couple of girls that just isolated from the wings, and we couldn’t get our double there fast enough.
“It was a good game. We hung in there, but we needed to make our shots in order to beat a team like that.”
The Maidens closed out their season with a 14-6 record.
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