Irwin beats out Charter for last lacrosse playoff slot

by TOM UTESCHER

When the Penn Charter and Agnes Irwin stick squads had to postpone a match originally scheduled for April 16 until May 11, the contest became the last regular-season lacrosse game which would be played in the Girls Inter-Ac league this spring. What the Quakers and the Owls didn't know last month was that the winner of the encounter would clinch the last available berth in the inaugural league tournament.

After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in last Tuesday's tilt, visiting PC slipped behind the Owls and trailed until late in the second half. Junior Margaretha Ehret's fourth goal of the game brought Charter back to a 13-13 tie with a little over six minutes remaining, but the hosts answered by scoring three times in a two-and-a-half minute span, and Irwin prevailed, 16-13.

"This is sort of the story of our season," PC coach Debbie White remarked afterwards. "We're just as good as everybody else, but we just can't seem to kick it into that extra gear that we need to win. We either force it or we lose our composure; little things, little mistakes catch up to us."

The Quakers (4-3 league, 8-7 overall) received another four goals from Ehret's classmate Marie McKenna and five from senior Katherine Entwisle, while junior Ali Pearce set up three PC goals and freshman Marghi Walters assisted on another. Leading Agnes Irwin, sophomore Allison Heffernan piled up a game-high eight goals and junior Bess Seigfried recorded five goals and three assists.

"Alison and Bess are my two girls who always step it up every game, and the other girls believe in them," noted first-year Agnes Irwin coach Amy Havrilla, a former star at Conestoga High School and the University of North Carolina. "We've fallen behind in a lot of our games this year, which is obviously not our goal, but our girls have been able to keep coming back, and we've won most of those games."

The previous Friday, Germantown Academy had clinched the official league championship, and also the top seed for the new Girls Inter-Ac tournament. Tuesday's win by Irwin gave the Owls a league record of 5-2 (7-4 overall) and they finished in a three-way tie for second place with Episcopal Academy and Springside School. For the league tournament seeding, the teams were ranked by total number of goals allowed in their seven league games, and by this method Episcopal (56 goals allowed) was seeded second, Agnes Irwin (65) third, and Springside (70) fourth. Penn Charter, the only league team to defeat GA (8-7 at PC on April 20), would not appear in postseason play.

The Quakers started off well at Irwin. Entwisle scored almost immediately and then McKenna struck twice in just 11 seconds about nine minutes into the action. An exchange of goals made it 4-1, then the Owls pulled even with their own quick burst of offense, as Seigfried scored on a free position and then assisted on two efforts by Heffernan in a span of 86 seconds.

With four minutes left in the opening period, Marghi Walters carried the ball in from midfield and hit Entwisle on the run for a goal, giving Charter its last lead of the game, at 5-4. The visitors would tie the match twice after that, but spent much of the time in catch-up mode.

Late in the first half, Irwin leapfrogged the Quakers on three free-position goals, which were shot by Seigfried, Katie Beers, and Heffernan in the space of 49 seconds. This thrust the Owls into a 7-5 halftime lead, but four minutes into the second round PC was all even at 7-all thanks to goals by Ehret and McKenna.

After that, though, the Quakers gave up two goals for every one they scored until Agnes Irwin led 13-10 with 12-and-a-half minutes left in the game.  Ehret tossed the egg into the Owls' nest to start Charter's final rally, and after McKenna bounced in a free position shot occasioned by a three-second call on Irwin, Ehret scored again, cutting across the arc for a shot just off the right side of the crease. The host team called time-out, with a 13-13 score and six minutes and 18 seconds on the board.

Two minutes later, the Owls received the eventual gamewinner from Seigfried. Confronted by a PC doubleteam as she charged through the middle, the Irwin junior rolled outside to the left, then pivoted back in to get off a clear shot. With 2:14 to go Heffernan rambled two-thirds the length of the field to make it 15-13, and half-a-minute later Seigfried added extra insurance, going past three Quaker defenders to put in a backhander.