May 15, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local laxers battling down home stretch
by TOM UTESCHER

Springside’s Sophia Petrillo tries to knock the ball out of Baldwin’s Maggie Mae Shields’ stick. (Photo by Jimmy J. Pack Jr.)

It was a week of exciting league clashes for the lacrosse teams from Germantown Friends, Mount St. Joseph Academy, Penn Charter, and Springside School.

On Tuesday the GFS Tigers and the Mount Magic beat the defending champions in the Friends School League and the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies, respectively, while Springside’s Lions fell in the last minute to Baldwin, the new rising star of the Girls Inter-Ac.

Springside and GFS squared off against one another the following day, and a big first half for the Lions set them up for a 15-8 non-league victory. Unfortunately for Springside fans, they would still be winless in the Inter-Ac at week’s end, following Saturday’s 15-13 overtime loss to visiting Penn Charter. With that win in their only game of the week, PC’s Quakers remained tied with Notre Dame for second place, each two games behind Episcopal in the loss column.

On Tuesday an eight-goal outburst by sophomore Betsy Sachs helped power host GFS to a 15-14 win over the Shipley Gators, the reigning FSL champs. The Tigers never trailed in the game, but after they began the second half with an 8-6 edge, the score would be tied three times during the second period as Shipley’s Tara Stokes accumulated five goals and one assist.

The last deadlock, at 14-all, was broken by Sachs (who also had two assists in the game) with 2:46 remaining, and after the Tiger defense repulsed Shipley’s last meaningful charge a minute later, GFS was home free. Allie Beer added a pair of goals for the winners, and goalie Becca Williams made 14 saves. With the win, GFS earned home field advantage for its next meeting with the Gators, which comes this week in an FSL semifinal game.

The same afternoon, the Mount was squaring off at home against Merion Mercy, the strongest squad in the AACA over the past few seasons and a team the Magic seniors had never beaten throughout their careers. Two of those upperclassmen, Lori Beppel and Brit Gavin, shot five and three goals, respectively, as the Mount built an 8-5 halftime advantage and then led the Golden Bears the rest of the way. The most productive day was had by a sophomore, Nicole Schuster, who rang up five goals and four assists.

A day earlier, the Mount had survived a scare at Villa Joseph Marie (Holland, PA), winning 17-16 in overtime. After the Merion game, Mount St. Joe traveled out to Villa Maria in Malvern on Thursday afternoon. There, the host Hurricanes preserved their undefeated league record by turning back the Magic, 19-9. Villa went up 15-5 in the first half, and ended up with five goals apiece from Chelsea Fay and Kathy Young, while Charlotte Flynn fired four goals for the Mount and Schuster scored twice.

Springside’s week began with a home field bout against Baldwin, who had just handed Inter-Ac leader Episcopal its first loss in the league, and who had thumped the Lions in their April 11th meeting, 16-8. Stepping up out of a 5-5 halftime tie, Springside forged ahead, and was up 12-10 with eight minutes remaining. The Lions didn’t score again, though, and after the Bears pulled even, Maggie Mae Shields scored with 54 seconds to go, giving Baldwin a 13-12 win. Springside’s Nora Langan and Baldwin’s Sloan Warren’s each ended up with five goals, and Leslie Jacoby added four for the Lions.

At GFS a day later, two unassisted strikes by Langan and a Jacoby tally assisted by Courtney Caputo gave visiting Springside a 3-0 lead over the first four minutes. The Tigers quickly got back into the game, as Lydia Kring maneuvered past several defenders to score, and Mariah Barstow followed suit to make it 3-2.

As Jacoby and Kring traded goals, the count rose to 4-3 midway through the opening period. The pivotal stretch of the game began with 10:38 remaining in the first half, as Springside would score eight consecutive goals over the next nine minutes. Langan found the net three times during this spree, and although GFS had the last word in the first half when Sachs came from behind the cage to score with one second remaining, the Tigers were still in an eight-goal hole (12-4).

Lions goalie Tori Roebuck, who signed for an athletic scholarship to the University of Richmond last fall, made impressive stops throughout the game to wind up with 17 saves on the day.

Springside’s Langan opened the second-half scoring to complete her double hat trick, and the Tigers were unable to mount a serious comeback. The only time they managed back-to-back goals in the second period was when Kring and Maura McInerney-Rowley scored with 3:22 and 2:46 left to play.

For Springside, Langan wound up with six goals and one assist and Caputo (two assists) and Jacoby each chalked up a hat trick, while Anna Hayne had two goals and an assist. Natalie Browne-Holmes also scored for the Lions, and Nicole Lombardo handed out an assist.

Four goals by Kring and two by Sachs paced Germantown Friends, along with one goal each from Barstow (two assists) and McInerney-Rowley. Williams went most of the way in goal for the Tigers to accumulate seven saves, and Samie Francis made three saves in relief.

In Saturday’s Inter-Ac affair, neither Springside nor Penn Charter led by more than two goals at any juncture. The Lions were up 7-5 at the half, but then trailed 10-11 with two minutes to go. Ten seconds later, Lindsay Yang converted off of a Springside free position, forging the tie that took the contest into overtime. In the first OT, the Quakers received their sixth goal of the game from Becca Foley, a senior who’s headed for Franklin and Marshall. Fellow upperclassman Nora McGurkin also hit the mark for Charter, but Springside goals by Langan and Lombardo forced another overtime session, with the count now 13-13. The Lions didn’t score again (PC keeper Robin McDowell had 11 saves), while a go-ahead goal by Danielle Yorko and an insurance strike by McGurkin (her fourth goal) put Penn Charter over the top.

Springside was paced by Jacoby’s six goals and Langan’s four, and Roebuck recorded 19 saves.