West Chester East blows past listless Upper Dublin

UPPER DUBLIN >> Two girls lacrosse programs with big goals for the season met at Upper Dublin High School Friday.
West Chester East, looking to take a step up in the Ches-Mont League this season, and host Upper Dublin, looking to prove its mettle following the retirement of long-time head coach Dee Cross, met on a day colder than expected.
And on this day, it was the Vikings that made the most progress.
Behind six goals from Shannon Moore, East topped its host, 13-5, and head coach Marie Pepper said the result of the game was much more meaningful than a simple victory over a non-league foe.
“We’re hoping to move up in our league this year,” Pepper said. “Last year, we were middle of the pack, but we feel we can get up higher this year, and this win is a big one for us.
“I was happy with the percentage on our draw controls and I was happy that we were able to score as many goals as we did. Our attack was very good. They looked ready to go to goal.”
The Vikings wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as Moore won the opening draw, sped down field and put the visitors up, 1-0.
Less than a minute later, Sarah Reilly scored off a free position, and the die was cast.
Upper Dublin’s Caroline Wall halved the Cardinals deficit at the 14:05 mark, but that would be as close as the Cardinals would get the rest of the day.
Morgan Catrambone restored the two-goal cushion at the 10:32 mark, and after Jess Grodsky pulled the Cardinals to within a goal off a free-position shot with just over four minutes left in the half, East would play frontrunner through game’s end.
Play was halted with 41 seconds left in the first half, when Upper Dublin’s Rebecca Browndorf was hit in the face with a shot, causing a fountain of blood to pour all over the area in front of the goal cage. It caused a delay of 12 minutes while the blood was wiped up off the turf.
Undeterred by the delay, Moore scored two of the game’s next four goals, ballooning the East lead to 7-2 early in the second half, and the Cardinals would play a futile game of catch-up the rest of the afternoon.
“We started out slowly, but we picked up our play in the second half,” Moore said. “It showed in the score.
“I score a lot of goals, but we’re so much better when we play as a team and everyone contributes. And that’s what happened today.”
A brief Cardinals flurry brought the hosts back to within 7-4 with 14:37 left in the game. But after an East timeout, the Vikings would score six of the game’s final seven goals to win going away.
“This is a huge game for us,” Moore said. “We have a lot of big games in our league coming up, so this win is a big stepping stone.”
On the other sideline, Cardinals rookie head coach Lauren Mateja was not as enthused as the Vikings braintrust.
“We just came out flat,” Majeta said. “We didn’t play with a lot of emotion.
“We’re coming off a tough overtime loss to Pennridge and a real bad loss to Central Bucks East, and I thought we would come out with some enthusiasm and energy, but we didn’t. I don’t think we were out of it skill-wise, I think we were out of it energy-wise.”
FEELING LAX
Along with Moore’s six goals and one assist, the Vikings got three goals and an assist from Catrambone and single goals from Reilly, Maddie Smiley, Saundra Godshall and Ale Daley. … Upper Dublin got its scoring from Wall (two goals, one assist), Grodsky (1 goal), Lindsey Schreiber (1 goal) and Hannah Reape (1 goal), with Paige Lawton adding an assist.