Gwynedd Mercy shuts down Mount St. Joseph, advances to District 1-2A semis

LOWER GWYNEDD >> Sarah Holland got Tyrone the Elephant. The Gwynedd Mercy girls lacrosse team got another trip to the PIAA tournament.

Tyrone is the Monarchs’ stuffed animal mascot given to as GMA’s top player of the game. Friday afternoon, the honor went to Holland, as the junior goalkeeper anchored a defense that frustrated 12th-seeded Mount Saint Joseph throughout their District 1-2A quarterfinal matchup, helping No. 4 Gwynedd Mercy earn an 7-4 victory over its Catholic Academies rival.

“I love it. It’s really exciting for me,” Holland said. “I felt I didn’t play my best game but, the fact that my teammates saw I played my best game.”

Holland — in just her first season in the net — collected six saves, stopping pair of stops on 8-meter shots in the second half as the Monarchs (17-2) used a three-goal spurt to take a 7-3 lead with 3:31 left and go on to claim their 15th straight win.

“We shut them down. I thought a couple times they really could of taken that one more step on us and they didn’t,” GMA coach Deb Lawlor said. “It’s probably because we made them feel uncomfortable and that’s what we’re suppose to do as a defense. Best defense never has to check. We weren’t checking too much in there, which means we were doing the right stuff. That means you hook a sister up because you’re picking up on your slide, you’re picking up on your second slide. We had some knockdowns.

“Our goalie — you serious, wow. I don’t even have words for her, remarkable. Her first full year in a goal cage — wow.”

Elizabeth Ferguson finished with a game-high three goals while Courtney Narkoff added two goals and an assist for the Monarchs, who advance the District 1-2A semifinals for the second straight season — clinching back-to-back PIAA berths — and visit top-seeded Villa Maria Tuesday.

“It just shows that even though seniors leave from the year before we can still pull people up and pull out the Ws to get to states and qualify,” Holland said.

Villa Maria is the only team to hand Gwynedd Mercy a loss this year. Lawlor was blunt on what it would take for the Monarchs to finally best the Hurricanes in their third meeting of 2018.

“Not play like today,” she said. “But I think today was also if we look at it as a positive, that we did dig ourselves out. Not one time did we look flustered but we didn’t look complete. So I think going into Villa Maria we saw them twice in our first four games. We’re a different team since then, we’ve also cut a break in we got  some fresh legs because we’re really rotating our middies out so we’re not beat up, we’re not tired.

“So I would think that that would be a huge benefit to us. And against Villa, you know what, it’s our job to play smarter — period — and that’s what we got to do.”

Brooke Blanche had a pair of goals to pace Mount Saint Joseph, which never led Friday but twice pulled even with GMA in the first half — the last time at 2-2 before the Monarchs scored the next two to hold a 4-2 edge at the break.

“I think we got the shots they wanted us to get,” Magic coach Jim Sheedy said. “We fell for that, we took the cheese. We got shots, I think that’s the shots they wanted us to take. It’s hard to tell a kid — it’s not basketball, I can’t tell a kid ‘No, no pull that out and wait for the next turn,’ So I think they did a good job of really pushing us to shots that made their goalie feel comfortable and made the defense feel comfortable. But I thought our defense against them played fantastic.”

Liz Meister got a shot past Holland for the opening goal of the second half to pull Mount with 4-3 with 17:40 remaining but Ferguson gave Gwynedd Mercy back its two-goal advantage by completing her hat trick with a drive straight at the net at 11:32.

With the Magic trying to clear, Sheedy tried to call a time out but was not given one and Mount lost the ball out of bounds. Gwynedd converted the turnover into a goal with Grace Hirschmann’s tally at 5:27 extending the lead to 6-3.

“I brought Cary back from the attack position and threw Grace, my defender out there and she goes out there and she scores,” Lawlor said. “I’m just trying to give a break to a injured athlete and she goes and puts one in the net. I think that was the deciding change.”

Narkoff gave the Monarchs their largest lead, spinning free then driving in from the left flank for her second goal with 3:31 left. Blanche scored her second goal at 2:33 but the Magic could not cut any closer.

While Mount Saint Joseph’s season ends with a 10-8 record, the Magic are young — only graduating four seniors from the roster — and  look to build on upsetting Pope John Paul II in the first round for their first district win since 2013.

“We’re trying to rachet it up a little bit. I think Deb gets her program prepared to play at a higher level. I’m pushing that kind of concept,” Sheedy said. “Villa Maria has that concept well in place, they’re like cyborgs. You got to push yourself. We’re good enough to compete but you want to play at the next level, it’s kind of a different phase. And I thought there were parts today where we played well but overall we got stagnant and we got a little flustered.”

GMA and Mount traded the first foul goals — Margaret Anne Borneman pulling the Magic level 2-2 at 11:40 in the first half. Ferguson put the Monarchs up for good with her strike at 9:45 while Narkoff’s converted an 8-meter shot for a 4-2 lead at 6:41.

(4) Gwynedd Mercy  7, (12) Mt. St. Joseph 4
Mount Saint Joseph        2 2 — 4
Gwynedd Mercy              4 3 — 7
Mount Saint Joseph Goals-Assists: Brooke Blanche 2-0; Margaret Anne Borneman 1-0; Liz Meister.
Gwynedd Mercy Goals-Assists: Elizabeth Ferguson 3-0; Courtney Narkoff 2-1; Grace Hirschmann 1-0; Kendall Seifert 1-0; Carrie Johnston 0-1.