Gwynedd Mercy latest victim as Carroll keeps ‘crushing it’
MARPLE TWP. » Archbishop Carroll formally began defense of its PIAA Class 2A girls state lacrosse championship Tuesday with a 22-3 win over Gwynedd Mercy in the first round of the playoffs.
It was tough to determine which was hotter — the 98-degree temperature for the opening draw at Cardinal O’Hara High School or the Patriots’ offense.
Machaela Henry won the draw and 33 seconds later scored the first of her gamehigh four goals. Henry and fellow junior Catie McConaghy, who had four goals, combined to net four of the first eight goals for the Patriots, who are 21-0.
Not bad for a unit playing its first game in five days.
“At practice we just kept pushing it so that when we came back out here today, we could keep up our momentum,” said Henry, who won nine of 16 Carroll draw controls on the day. “We’re loving it. We’re crushing it every day. We like our spot but we’re not content. We want to keep going. We want to get a state championship, but we’ve got to work for it. We’ve got to keep coming to work.”
The District 12 champion Patriots oppose the Mount Saint Joseph-Crestwood winner in the quarterfinals Saturday.
It was 4-0 Carroll before the Monarchs tallied, Izzie Fiore converting a free position with 18:49 remaining in the first half.
But the Patriots answered with 10 straight goals to grab a 14-1 lead at the intermission. Emma Talago tallied the 11th goal to trigger the running clock on a feed from Kiley Mottice with 8:03 left in the first half.
Patriots coach Lorraine Beers substituted liberally in the second half, getting all her players into the game.
“That’s an awesome team,”
Monarchs coach Deb Lawlor said. “Today I was just blessed to be coaching next to Lorraine. That’s a plus to any coaching opportunity. She was running some kids in there but as you can see my kids didn’t let up. The problem my group had was her speed. We could not match that. And the way she smothered us on transitions. We panicked and just kept throwing the ball away. Those two things are the makings of being on the wrong side of the scoreboard. But no letdown. We were able to rally, got some good offensive sets, got some shots on cage. I was pleased with that.”
Lawlor also got everyone on her team into the game, and that should help the Monarchs grow. Keira Cassidy (assist) and Sydney Mandato each scored goals in the last five minutes of the second half for Gwynedd Mercy.
But the big story was the precision play of the Patriots. They didn’t play their best game yet still made it look easy. Even the pre-game warmups were interesting, with precision behindthe-back passes.
“We had some good passing and transfers,” McConaghy said. “We were able to score on almost all the opportunities, basically. I think we’re doing really good. It’s our best year so far because we’re undefeated. It’s kind of crazy.”
Kiley Mottice, Sienna Golden and Brooke Hippert scored two goals apiece for the Patriots, who led by as many as 19. Mottice assisted on three goals.