Mount sticksters secure playoff spot

by TOM UTESCHER

Heading into last Thursday’s regular-season finale, both the Mount St. Joseph Academy lacrosse team and its guests from Villa Joseph Marie owned records of 6-5 in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies.

The winner would claim the fourth and final place in the league playoffs, and it was the host Magic who enjoyed the happier outcome, pulling away in the final ten minutes to eliminate Villa Joe’s Jems, 13-10.

Katie Burke and Katie Reinprecht each chalked up three goals and one assist for the locals, and two goals apiece were added by Amanda Jones (two assists) and Nina Ferrier (one assist) as Mount St. Joe upped its overall record to 8-10. Center Casey Boland led Villa Joseph Marie with a hat trick, but couldn’t prevent the visitors from slipping to a 10-8 mark on the season.

The Mount prepared for the pivotal AACA encounter with a tough tune-up the previous day, coming out on the short end of a 16-6 non-league skirmish with Girls Inter-Ac co-champion Germantown Academy.

Villa Joe’s Boland and MSJ’s Ferrier traded free-position goals over the first five minutes of Thursday’s match, and as the first half progressed neither team was able to gain more than a two-point advantage while the count rose to 6-6 with under three minutes to go in the period. Burke burst in from the right side of the arc to move the Magic ahead with 2:23 on the clock. Reinprecht struck early in the final minute, then Burke set up a point-blank shot by Liz Roberts with just three seconds to go, setting the count at 9-6 for the intermission.

Another goal by Burke opened the second half, but Villa rallied back. Quick first home Kylie Murray came from behind the cage to score, then she assisted on the first of two markers by Boland as the Jems closed up the score to 10-9 with more than 15 minutes still left to play.

Charlotte Flynn’s feed from behind the goal helped Burke give the Magic some breathing room at 11-9. The Mount continued to move the ball well on attack, and Jones and Ferrier earned assists on goals by Reinprecht and Becky Borrell with 6:15 and 3:11 remaining.

Villa Joseph Marie had its own opportunities in the offensive third, but MSJ goalie Caitlin Cumpstone (12 saves) seemed to grow stronger as the game went on. She stoned Boland on three shots late in the game, one of them on a free position, and she foiled two attempts by Murray, as well. On another free-position for the Jems, Mount defender Courtney McNulty extended her stick to knock down a shot by the visitors’ Julia Adden.

Villa finally put in a goal off of a ground ball near the crease to make it 13-10, but with just 37 seconds on the clock, it was literally too little, too late.