SCH girls' lax closes regular season with two wins

by Tom Utescher
Posted 5/24/23

In girls' lacrosse, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy finished the regular season with a winning overall record.

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SCH girls' lax closes regular season with two wins

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The Inter-Ac League season in girls' lacrosse had wrapped up the week before, but with a pair of non-league victories last week, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy was able to finish the regular season with a winning record overall. The Blue Devils moved above the .500 mark, to 10-8-1, with home field wins over Haddonfield (N.J.) High School on Tuesday (14-6) and over the Hill School on Wednesday (18-3).

SCH had finished the 2023 league campaign at 5-5, tying for third place along with Penn Charter, also 5-5. Each of the teams had beaten the other, 9-8, in their home-away series. SCH had swept Germantown Academy and lost twice to Agnes Irwin, while PC split with both Irwin and GA.

Undefeated Inter-Ac champion Episcopal Academy chose once again to forego the Pa. Independent Schools tournament, so Irwin (7-3 league, 13-3 overall) was seeded first. Defending PAIS champ Penn Charter was seeded second and SCH was third. Both schools earned first-round byes in the tournament and await the winners of first-round games. Fourth-seeded Germantown Academy (3-7 Inter-Ac, fifth place) will start out in the PAIS quarterfinals against number five Hill.

In the first of Springside's back-to-back non-league games last week, the victory over Haddonfield was punctuated by the 200th career goal for senior Emma Bradbury, who will go on to play for the University of Michigan. The following day against Hill, senior goalie Shay Romero's seven saves included the 200th of her career. Bound for Siena College, Romero just became the full-time starter this year and made 180 saves just in the 2023 season.

Bradbury, Romero, and five other players were recognized before the Hill School game on Wednesday, the Blue Devils' Senior Day. The other members of the Class of 2023 are Caroline Foley, Fallon George, Riley Kling, Kaitlyn Melinson, and Mali-Vinn Renz.

Hill School kept pace with the Blue Devils for the first six minutes of the game. The Lady Rams were hit with a yellow card with three-and-a-half minutes elapsed, but on the resulting free position SCH junior Alex Riley sent her shot into a goalpost.

The Devils kept possession of the ball, though, and Reilly found the net with almost four minutes gone for the first goal of the afternoon. Hill responded half-a-minute later, with Sydney Saracene breaking the ice for the visitors.

SCH came down off the draw and had a joint effort between two juniors produce a second goal, as Sarah Scollin assisted scorer Cortney Neverosky. With 19:04 remaining in the first half, Hill's Annabella Schafer shot from the outside on the right, leveling the score at 2-2.

With 18:34 on the clock a pass by Scollin set up a scoring drive for Reilly, who then earned an assist of her own at 17:09. She passed the ball inside to Bradbury, who scored from the edge of the crease.

That made it 4-2, and Hill would not score again in the first half as the Blue Devils' total continued to climb. The tally reached 11-2 before halftime, when Scollin already had six assists to her credit. She, Bradbury, and Reilly each had three goals at this stage.

Schafer scored for the visitors early in the second half, but the Lady Rams would not score again in the game. Junior Madison Freeman scored for SCH with just over six minutes gone, and in the same minute Reilly struck again to make it 13-3 and keep the clock running.

Springside Chestnut Hill was up 17-3 with two minutes left to play. One of the seniors, Melinson, is a defender, but SCH moved her up the field at the end, and everyone was delighted when she scored with seven seconds remaining, locking in the 18-3 final score.

Reilly finished with five goals and three assists, and Bradbury with four goals, two assists, and 12 draw controls. Scollin and Freeman each scored three goals for the winners.