Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Rustin girls get in: Knights beat Abington to secure last state bid.
It was do or die time for both seventhseeded Abington and No. 5 West Chester Rustin.
The winner of Thursday’s District 1 Class 3A girls lacrosse playback game would see its season extended with a berth in the PIAA Tournament. The loser was going home, the season ended far too soon.
Knotted at 8-8 with 4:11 to play, the Golden Knights’ Jess Ciarrochi set up on a free possession, and rifled a shot past Abington goalie Maddie Sjoholm for the lead. Rustin then ran out the clock for the 9-8 victory to advance to states as the seventh seed from District 1.
“The girls really deserve this,” said Rustin coach Mike St. Clair. “The seniors have worked really hard for four years for this. The whole team, my coaching staff included, has worked hard for this. They deserve to be going where we’re going.”
The Golden Knights jumped out in a hurry, with Ciarrochi, Skyler Demis and Tina St. Clair scoring over the first 13 minutes of play to mount a 3-0 lead.
Abington began to work the ball to its star, Sam McGee, and she nearly single-handedly brought the Ghosts back into it, notching three quick goals in a matter of barely two minutes. Cathy Staerk scored a little over a minute after McGee’s third to give Abington had its first lead of the game, 4-3.
The scoring spree was helped along, in no small part, by the Ghosts suddenly dominating the draw controls, with four straight going their way.
“I’m blunt — I think we are the superior team,” said Abington coach Amanda Kammes. “Player for player, I don’t think it compares — we have at least four girls on this team that are going to be playing Division I college lacrosse. I’m not trying to be disrespectful — we were both fighting for the seventh seed, but we really beat ourselves today.”
After Abington went up 5-3 on a goal from Sam Simon, the rest of the half was Rustin’s, who sent the game to the break tied 5-5 on tallies from Kylie Videon and Michelle Chesock.
Rustin made some defensive adjustments in the second half, much more aggressively covering McGee, and after she hit an eight-meter shot with 17:23 to go to put the Ghosts up 7-5, arguably the best player on the field was silenced.
“McGee is one of the best players in the area,” said St. Clair. “She’s a dynamic scorer, and I thought the girls did a really nice job of shutting her down after she got off to a quick start in the first half. Offensively, I thought we did a nice job of moving the ball around and capitalizing on opportunities.”
The big momentum changer came with just over 13-minutes to play. Lauren Van Buren came out of the goal with the ball, and Videon came up with a steal. Darting past Van Buren to the empty net, Videon scored the easy goal to cut the lead to 7-6.
Abington managed just one more goal the rest of the way, a score from Kasey McCallister with 11:51 still on the clock. The Knights, meanwhile, put three in, including the game winner from Ciarrochi.
“I just knew I had to score,” said Ciarrochi. “I knew Sjoholm was good down low so I knew I had to go high. Knowing that we’re going to states is the greatest feeling in the world.”
The Hurricanes (18-4) grabbed third place in District 1 and clinched a playoff spot. Audrey Fantazzia led Villa with six goals, Sarah Delaney added three and Bri Bamber had a pair. Maddie Medve collected nine saves.