Fast start propels SCH lacrosse past GA girls

by Tom Utescher
Posted 5/10/23

In a 14-9 loss to Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in an April 12 girls' lacrosse match, Germantown Academy had borne the greater share of the burden of 14 total penalty cards.

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Fast start propels SCH lacrosse past GA girls

Posted

In a 14-9 loss to Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in an April 12 girls' lacrosse match, Germantown Academy had borne the greater share of the burden of 14 total penalty cards handed out by the officials, and once GA picked up a fourth yellow card late in the first half, the team went through the rest of the match without a full complement of players.

However, if the Patriots had a score to settle when they met SCH again last Tuesday, they didn't play that way for most of the first half. The host Blue Devils charged to a 5-0 lead in under 11 minutes and were up 8-4 at halftime. Making a stronger showing after the intermission, the visitors got within two goals of the Devils in the middle of the second half (9-7) but came no closer, and SCH prevailed 12-9.

Juniors Cortney Neverosky and Sarah Scollin each scored a hat trick for Springside Chestnut Hill, which moved up to 5-4 within the Inter-Ac League and 8-5-1 overall. GA senior Mia Raven recorded a game-high four goals and reached the 100-goal mark in career scoring, as did junior Emma Goodwin (two goals). GA's record slipped to 2-4, 10-5.

In goal, SCH senior Shay Romero logged 10 saves, and GA sophomore Sadie Hess had eight.

After Scollin pocketed the ball off the opening draw, she passed to junior Madison Freeman, who drove in to score just 12 seconds into the game. After SCH keeper Romero spurned a shot by GA's Raven at the other end, Neverosky scored for the hosts late in the second minute.

Half a minute later, junior Alex Reilly got the ball to Scollin a step from the crease for the Blue Devils' third goal. Free-position strikes by senior Emma Bradbury and Freeman made it 5-0 with 14:07 remaining in the first half.

"We came out fired up today," remarked Bradbury, who will go on to play for the University of Michigan. "We had a motivational locker room talk, and yesterday in practice we talked about the kind of legacy we wanted to leave, because we have a lot of seniors."

With 10 minutes remaining in the first half, GA got on the board when Raven made good on a free position opportunity, and junior Lucia Smigiel scored soon after that.

After just 24 more seconds went by, Reilly drove through a Patriots double team to score for SCH, and then a free-position strike by Neverosky put the hosts up 7-2 with 7:02 left in the half.

Germantown responded a minute later as Goodwin assisted on a marker by Raven. SCH went back on the attack, but after Freeman hit a goalpost with a shot the Patriots recovered the ball and saw Goodwin score for a 7-4 tally. The Blue Devils were foiled again on offense when GA's Hess saved a shot by Neverosky, but they still had the final word in the first half when Scollin drove in to score with 14 seconds remaining.

One last dash down the field proved fruitless for GA, but the Patriots did score the first goal of the second half, courtesy of senior Sarah Marvin. Five minutes in, the Blue Devils went up 9-5 as Bradbury cashed in off of a feed from Scollin. Less than two minutes later the Patriots were hit with their fourth yellow card of the afternoon, which meant that they would be one player short for the duration of the game.

Still, the Pats battled until the end. After each keeper made a stop at her end of the field, GA scored two goals in just over 30 seconds. Goodwin converted off a free position with a low shot, while Smigiel went high after taking a pass from Raven.

The visitors were now just two goals behind (9-7), but Springside solidified its lead with three goals in a row. Scollin struck on a free position, Neverosky put away a hard overhand shot with an assist from Bradbury, and Reilly drove in from the right to make it 12-7 with 6:56 left in the game.

On a Germantown possession a few minutes later, SCH's Romero saved a shot by Raven, but soon after that the GA senior made good on a free position opportunity. This came with 3:27 on the clock, and GA trimmed the Devils' final margin of victory to three points when Goodwin earned an assist on Raven's fourth goal with eight seconds remaining.

When the Patriots got close several times in the second half, SCH's Bradbury noted, "We had to settle things down, not rush on offense, and also stay disciplined on defense."

Asked about how she's looking to raise her game to prepare for college ball, the Michigan-bound senior said, "It's becoming apparent how important the draws are. 'Win the ball, win the world' is always on the board in our locker room. I'm going to work on my draws with my club coach, Julie Cross [a former Syracuse star], and fine-tune some things."