May 8, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Springside School lacrosse drubs Drakes
by TOM UTESCHER

Springside’s Anna Hayne

Springside School’s lacrosse Lions opened the new month with a victory, knocking off host Jenkintown High School 13-6 last Thursday as senior Nora Langan notched six goals and an assist and sophomore Courtney Caputo scored a hat trick and also handed out an assist.

The Jenkintown Drakes, who play as an independent, slipped below the Mendoza line to 5-6 overall, while the Lions improved their record to 5-9 overall while remaining 0-8 within the Girls Inter-Ac League.

“We came out with some intensity, and we took care of the ball, which was one of our goals,” said first-year coach B.J. Zellers, whose club led 9-4 at the half. “We played our game today.”

By beating Lower Merion High School the previous Saturday, 10-9 (Caputo scored the game-winner), Springside became the only Inter-Ac team to win its game at the Katie Samson Lacrosse Festival in Radnor. Tuesday brought another league setback, though, as the Lions bowed to Notre Dame, 20-10.

“We’ve matched up well with our opponents outside the league,” Coach Zellers noted. “When we get into the league games, we don’t always start out strongly. We play much better in the second half, generally, but at that point it’s hard to make up the difference. I think it’s mental; I think we have a very talented and skilled team, but we don’t execute as well as usual at the beginning of the league games.”

Ten minutes into last Thursday’s match, Jenkintown was still just one point behind, at 3-2. Langan opened the scoring after scooping up a rebound, and the Drakes’ Jill Asher answered on a drive from the right side. Caputo put the visitors ahead again, then after Leslie Jacoby (two goals) made good off an assist from Nicole Lombardo, Jenkintown got back within one as a feed from Emma Leach set up Maura Mulvaney (two goals).

Jacoby split a pair of Drake defenders to make it 4-2, and two more Lions goals followed. Lindsey Yang tore down the field off of the next center draw and delivered the ball to Anna Hayne (two goals) for a score, and then Caputo passed the ball inside to assist a goal by Langan.

From there, the Lions continued on to build a 9-3 lead with three-and-a-half minutes left in the half, but Jenkintown had the last word in the period as Hilary Leitson converted off of a free position.

Langan scored twice in the first 90 seconds of the second half, but the hosts quickly got one back as Leitson found the net from a very tough angle to the right of the cage. Karly Eyre’s goal with 11:49 remaining closed the gap to five, at 11-6, then Springside called time-out to regroup. The Lions’ bench players filtered into the game in the closing minutes, even as the visitors scored the last two goals of the day courtesy of Hayne and Caputo.

“It was nice to get the younger players in, and to see them maintain the same intensity as the starters,” Zellers said.