Twin Valley takes second straight county title, beating Wilson 16-6

After winning a second-consecutive BCIAA girls lacrosse title and completing another perfect regular season, Twin Valley will enter the District 3 Class 2A tournament as the top seed behind an offense that has 10 double-digit scorers and three players with 50 or more goals.

The Raiders outscored Wilson by eight in the second half of the BCIAA championship game Thursday at Albright College on the way to a 16-6 victory.

“I think we realized what they were doing in the first half,” said senior Julia Givens, who scored a game-high five goals. “We spread out more (in the second half) and just moved the ball really well and were able to find the open player.”

Twin Valley coach Courtney Kaplan credited her team’s ability to make adjustments for its success.

“We have so many threats on the field that if you take one away we have six other people that can score,” Kaplan said. “They trust each other because they believe they can do it. They know they’re in a good place and have each other.”

The Raiders (19-1) have scored more goals than any other team in Berks this season, boys or girls, with 323.

Even with an arsenal loaded with senior talent like league-leading goal scorer Emma Raines (75) and Givens, who has 108 total points in 2022, Kaplan said she believes the team will be focusing on improving its shot selection before the district tournament. Twin Valley has a firstround bye and will open at home with a quarterfinal game Wednesday against either No. 8 Conestoga Valley or No. 9 Cocalico.

“These guys are always hungry to score and sometimes that’s not what we want to do,” Kaplan said. “So being able to be patient at the right time and disciplined is always something that we are striving to do because they really see the goal. They’re like, ‘Oh, shoot,’ you know, and they get really amped to do that. So being able to read the situation and make the right play is important.”

Twin Valley strengthened its regular season schedule in 2022 to better prepare for districts. The Raiders beat defending champion York Catholic 17-7 on March 30 in a rematch of last year’s title game. After going 7-1 against non-league opponents and making it through the BCIAA playoffs, Kaplan and her squad are motivated to refocus on districts.

“(All season), it’s either been a really tough game, or it’s a really easy game,” Kaplan said. So we need all of these games to get ready. We’re gonna see teams that we saw already this year; like York Catholic in the finals is my prediction.

“We’re going to have to take each game one at a time, but we’ve never won districts before so that would be great.”