May 8, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

GA girls lacrosse edged by Episcopal
by TOM UTESCHER

Germantown Academy and Episcopal Academy have faced one another in many hard-fought girls lacrosse matches in the month of May, but in years past the teams were much closer in the Girls Inter-Ac League standings than they were in last Saturday’s meeting at EA.

The visiting Patriots led by three goals at one point in the first half and were up by two during the second period, but the Churchwomen went ahead for good with a 5-0 run and held on for a 14-13 victory. Having suffered its first league loss in a Tuesday tilt with Baldwin School, Episcopal bounced back to achieve a 7-1 record in the Inter-Ac (12-4 overall), while GA (7-8 overall) slipped to 3-5, and finds itself in the unusual position of having to run the table in its four remaining league contests to finish with a winning record.

Juniors Kate Henrich and Olivia Mann each scored a hat trick for the Patriots, who also received two goals and three assists apiece from seniors Amanda Jones and Heather Rittenhouse. Episcopal’s scorers, all of them underclassmen, were led by freshman Blake McHugh, with four goals, and junior Sammi Arbitman, with three goals and one assist.

Each squad had one regular starter sidelined by injury on Saturday. At the outset, GA tallied twice on nearly identical plays, with Jones drawing a double team a little above the arc, and then slipping the ball inside to Rittenhouse for the marker. McHugh got the scoreboard rolling for the Churchwomen, who then went up 3-2 thanks to an unassisted strike by junior Megan Spagnola (two goals total) and a goal by freshman Taylor Trimble that stemmed from a pass by junior Kate Ivory (one goal, one assist).

In its best offensive stretch of the game, Germantown funneled in four goals in under five minutes during the middle of the period. Mann dashed thru from the midfield to start the string, then a successful free-position shot by Jones was sandwiched in between two goals by Henrich, who netted the second while being double-teamed in front of the cage.

This put GA up 6-3 with 9:54 to go in the half, but just 17 seconds later Arbitman resuscitated the Episcopal crowd with her first goal of the afternoon. EA freshman Lindsey McManus scored soon after that to bring the hosts within one, and the ninth-grader found the net again with just over a minute to go, creating a 6-6 halftime time.

This was one of several points in the game when Episcopal gave the impression that when it really needed a goal, it would find a way to score. GA moved the ball around well on offense and produced many more assisted goals than the Churchwomen, but the Patriot defense had trouble stopping solo penetration by the EA attackers. Many times, the Pats would check the ball out of Episcopal’s sticks, but then lose the race for the resulting ground balls.

Over the first nine minutes of the second half GA outpointed Episcopal 3-1 for a 9-7 advantage, as Rittenhouse assisted Mann and Henrich, and Jones helped set up a goal by fellow upperclassman Brittany Bell (two goals). With just under 16 minutes left, Arbitman lost control of the ball briefly as she drove to goal (thanks to GA defensive pressure), but she recovered the bobble and scored what would be the first of five straight goals for the Churchwomen.

McHugh converted off of a free position, then Ivory seized the subsequent draw and raced downfield to fill the Patriots’ cage. Sophomore Avery Curley drove up the middle for the fourth point in the string, then Spagnola’s free-po marker made it 12-9 with 11:27 on the clock.

Mann, senior Mary Haynie, and Bell powered GA’s second 3-1 burst of the second half, but Arbitman’s third goal for Episcopal made it a two-goal game again (14-12) with 8:24 remaining. The Churchwomen called time-out to discuss strategy for the stretch run, then came back out playing a possession game that sapped seconds from the clock and hope from the Germantown fans.

GA went down on the attack with about 50 seconds left, and after the Pats’ first shot missed the cage, Jones drove in from high on the right to deposit the visitors’ 13th goal. At that point, however, only 11 seconds were showing on the scoreboard, and Episcopal preserved its one-goal margin.