GA lacrosse tops Springside, Baldwin

by TOM UTESCHER

The race for the Girls Inter-Ac lacrosse crown came into sharper focus last week, as the month of April ended with Germantown Academy and Episcopal Academy still undefeated in league play, while all of the other teams owned at least two losses.

GA’s Patriots, the defending champions, entered May with a 5-0 Inter-Ac tally (10-2 overall) after winning 11-8 at Springside on Tuesday and then coming from four goals down at Baldwin (3-2) on Friday to beat the Bears 13-11.

In another Friday match, Springside was bounced by Agnes Irwin 18-7, and with a resulting league record of 1-4, the Lions appear to have dropped out of contention for a place in the postseason Inter-Ac tournament. On Tuesday Penn Charter’s tourney hopes were pushed to the edge of the abyss with a loss at Episcopal, then the Quakers secured an 18-4 victory over Notre Dame on Friday to finish the week with a 2-3 mark.

It should be remembered that the official league championship still goes to the team with the best win/loss record in regular-season Inter-Ac matches, and not to the winner of the tournament. With that in mind, this Saturday’s bout between Episcopal and GA (2:30 PM at Germantown) will be a pivotal contest.

Last Tuesday at Springside, the Lions retraced a pattern they’d followed several times earlier in the month, hanging close for a half, and then fading. GA opened up a 3-0 lead on strikes by Heather Rittenhouse, Sarah Warner, and Carolyn Burnett (the last two were assisted by Niki Finelli), then Arianne Lee of the Lions set up Jane Gray for a goal and Bunny O’Reilly added a second.

Two goals by Lee were balanced by scores by GA’s Warner and Colleen Magarity to create a 5-4 tally at the intermission. Over the first five minutes of the second period the Patriots mounted a 4-1 charge as Rittenhouse put in two goals and assisted one by Jenna Washabaugh, while Magarity scored her second of the game.

Nora Langan accounted for the lone Springside point during the GA spree, but later she and teammate Ali Mainka chalked up consecutive goals to get the Lions back within two (9-7) with a little over 15 minutes remaining.

Soon after that Rittenhouse cashed in again off of a feed from Alyssa Tsouboros, and the count stood at 10-7 for the next 11 minutes, when Washabaugh put in the Pats’ final goal. Langan capped it off for Springside with 1:44 remaining in the game. Each team was led in scoring by a freshman; Rittenhouse for GA (four goals, two assists), and Langan for the Lions (three goals). In the nets, Kyra Dwinell had six saves for the win, and Springside’s Maeve Koch made 18 stops.

In another Tuesday tilt, Marie McKenna and Marghi Walters each rang up a hat trick for visiting Penn Charter, but it wasn’t enough to prevent PC from falling to Episcopal, 15-9.

In a non-league outing on Wednesday, GA romped over Jenkintown High School, 17-8, as Washabaugh whipped in five goals and Magarity added a hat trick.

Two days later, Germantown was playing with an ailing Burnett out of the starting line-up, and five minutes and 19 seconds into the match the rest of the Patriots were also on the sideline, huddling during a time-out after falling behind Baldwin, 4-0. Senior Sara Greenberg and sophomore Alex D’Ignazio had each scored twice, and three of the goals came in a span of just 33 seconds as the Bears won all of the early draws.

D’Ignazio did not score again, but the speedy Greenberg plagued the Pats all afternoon, simply running past the visitors as she accumulated a game-high six goals along with one assist. Baldwin focused defensive attention on prolific GA freshman Heather Rittenhouse (one assist), but Germantown’s other Heather – Heather Sherlock – notched a hat trick, including the icebreaker for the Patriots. This came with six-and-a-half minutes gone to make it 4-1, but the visitors were firing most of their other shots from extreme angles and couldn’t find the net. Careless passes also cost GA possession, and when Baldwin pocketed a ground ball the Bears were immediately off to the races.

Gradually GA shored up its weak points, and in the middle of the period Washabaugh scored off a roll dodge and then fed from behind the cage to Magarity, who made it 4-3. Finelli pulled Germantown even with 11:50 remaining in the half, then an exchange of goals made it 5-5 with six-and-a-half left.

For the next 18 minutes, the goals came two-by-two, with Baldwin forging ahead by a pair, and with GA coming back to tie but never getting over the hump to take the lead. It was 7-7 at the break, and the count reached 9-9 seven minutes into the second half.

Baldwin’s sophomore center, the normally-explosive Emma Hamm, was limited to scoring the last two goals of the first period, one of them an impromptu shot after Hamm recovered a ground ball in front of the cage. She was the defensive responsibility of GA’s quick Caitlin McGovern, a junior who usually draws the toughest marking assignments.

“She really did a nice job on Hamm,” observed Patriots coach Ginny Hofmann. “and in the second half she was all over the place getting ground balls for us.”

Baldwin’s last two goals came just 22 seconds apart, as Greenberg raced to the cage both times (Baldwin had three assisted scores in the game to GA’s six) to move the Bears ahead, 11-9, with 13-and-a-half minutes left in the game. In the end, the Pats were able to put the clamps on her, too, and Baldwin did not score again.

Now taking the center draws for Germantown, Magarity put in a low shot off of a feed from Finelli with 13:15 on the clock, then gobbled up the following face-off and sliced through half-a-dozen Baldwin defenders to tie the match at 13:02. Two minutes later, an outside pass from Rittenhouse found Sherlock at the crease for the gamewinner, and the Pats picked up an insurance goal at 7:22, when Magarity converted a free-position for her fifth goal of the day.

The next draw led to a toss won by Baldwin, but seconds later GA took the ball away from Hamm and went into a stall. The Bears regained possession to make one last offensive foray with under three minutes to go, but before they could set up their offense Germantown seized the ball again. The Patriots then just passed it around in the offensive third as Baldwin appeared too tired to mount an effective chase.

As Hofmann pointed out, “We’ve got some runners from the cross country team out there [Washabaugh, Finelli, and Burnett], and girls like Colleen [Magarity] and Caitlin [McGovern] are in terrific condition, so one thing I know is that we’re not going to run out of gas.”

GA’s Dwinell made six saves in goal, and Baldwin’s Ali Pedersen had 13.

Over at Springside that same afternoon, Agnes Irwin (3-2 league) recorded its first “W” against the Lions since the mid-1990’s. Things started off well for the locals, as O’Reilly took the ball downfield off of the opening draw and dished it to Lee, who put the hosts up 1-0 with just nine seconds gone.

Later, the match was tied at 2-2 before the Owls pulled ahead for keeps, moving out to a 10-3 halftime lead and then remaining in control during the second period.

As Lions coach Brooke Fritz pointed out, “They only outshot us 32-30, but we shot high or wide most of the time, or we just hit the goalie.”

All of Springside’s scoring came from O’Reilly (four goals, two assists) and Lee (three goals, one assist), and Koch recorded 14 saves. Irwin was led by Allison Heffernan, with five goals, and six other Owls deposited two apiece.

Meanwhile, Penn Charter’s McKenna and Walters upped their output from the previous game to four goals apiece, and the Quakers crushed struggling Notre Dame Academy by 14. Annie McKenna and Kerry McLernan added hat tricks as PC remained in the running for an Inter-Ac tournament berth.

As Hofmann pointed out, “We’ve got some runners from the cross country team out there [Washabaugh, Finelli, and Burnett], and girls like Colleen [Magarity] and Caitlin [McGovern] are in terrific condition, so one thing I know is that we’re not going to run out of gas.”

GA’s Dwinell made six saves in goal, and Baldwin’s Ali Pedersen had 13.

Over at Springside that same afternoon, Agnes Irwin (3-2 league) recorded its first “W” against the Lions since the mid-1990’s. Things started off well for the locals, as O’Reilly took the ball downfield off of the opening draw and dished it to Lee, who put the hosts up 1-0 with just nine seconds gone.

Later, the match was tied at 2-2 before the Owls pulled ahead for keeps, moving out to a 10-3 halftime lead and then remaining in control during the second period.

As Lions coach Brooke Fritz pointed out, “They only outshot us 32-30, but we shot high or wide most of the time, or we just hit the goalie.”

All of Springside’s scoring came from O’Reilly (four goals, two assists) and Lee (three goals, one assist), and Koch recorded 14 saves. Irwin was led by Allison Heffernan, with five goals, and six other Owls deposited two apiece.

Meanwhile, Penn Charter’s McKenna and Walters upped their output from the previous game to four goals apiece, and the Quakers crushed struggling Notre Dame Academy by 14. Annie McKenna and Kerry McLernan added hat tricks as PC remained in the running for an Inter-Ac tournament berth.