Owen J. Roberts has the juice to send Panthers to playbacks
BUCKTOWN » There’s little left to prove with Owen J. Roberts’ 2017 squad.
Yet, a week after capturing their third straight Pioneer Athletic Conference title, the Wildcats added another achievement onto a growing list.
Anna Dempsey and Eloise Gebert registered a hat trick apiece while senior goaltender Mia Tornetta provided another solid game in net as Owen J. Roberts downed Strath Haven 12-6 in the District 1 Class 3A quarterfinals, clinching a spot in the upcoming PIAA playoffs.
It’s the Wildcats’ second state berth in as many seasons. This clincher, however, carries a little more weight.
“It’s nice to know that we still have it,” said Dempsey, a senior Bloomsburg commit. “After last year I think a lot of people thought that we weren’t going to be as good this year. It’s nice to prove it.”
“We lost four really strong seniors from last year,” Gebert added, “but we have a whole team of strong people that were able to come in and take over.”
Owen J. Roberts will face Conestoga, an 11-5 winner over Abington, in the district semifinals Tuesday at a time to be determined. Strath Haven, led by two goals apiece from Margot Hotham and Maddy Ruffini, falls into the district playback round. Seven teams qualify for the state tournament.
“It wasn’t our best lacrosse today,” Strath Haven head coach Pigeon Graham said. “Owen J. Roberts played a great game. We had a gameplan that we didn’t execute quite the way we wanted to. I think we need to do a better job of moving our feet and not checking defensively. We got into some trouble and that caused a lot of eight-meters that put us behind a lot.”
The Wildcats cleaned up their miscues from their 14-10 victory over Harriton a round prior. Stronger passing and ball movement in the offensive half and better defensive positioning were the keys for a team that is on a continuous search for perfection.
“We emphasized in practices our weaknesses from last game,” Dempsey said. “Our big thing last time was crashing. We worked a lot harder on our crashing, that was our big problem using our sticks instead of our bodies. We also did a lot better on our double teams. We focused on our weaknesses and we got charge calls, so it worked for us.”
“When they were doubleteaming us we did a lot better of moving the ball around,” Gebert said. “Last game we would just pass it back and forth between girls but today we were moving around and looking for open people.”
The Panthers had tied it at 3-3 behind a beautiful goal from Hotham just outside the crease with 12:50 left in the first half but OJR clamped down to close it out. Dempsey capped off a lengthy threeminute possession with a perfectly-placed shot to make it 4-3 with 9:02 left in the half before Danika Swech (two goals, one groundball) found the net on a free position try nearly three minutes later.
Frankie Carroll and Maddi Koury opened up the second half with back-toback goals in a three minute stretch to pad the lead to 7-3. The goal-margin did not fall below three the rest of the way.