Owen J. Roberts uses strong second half to down Perkiomen Valley
GRATERFORD >> They seemed to be up for the challenge.
With standout attack Christie Balestra sidelined with injury, the Perkiomen Valley girls lacrosse team hung tight with Owen J. Roberts most of the way on Wednesday afternoon at PV High School.
Overwhelmed by a second-half outburst from OJR senior Maddie Gebert and the Wildcats though, the Vikings eventually fell, 10-3.
Even in a loss, Perkiomen Valley head coach Kathy Kelley had nothing but positives on the strides her team has made this season.
“We hung tough with a really strong Owen J. team,” she said. “They’re the leading team in the PAC for a reason. The girls put out a really good effort today, unfortunately we couldn’t come out on top.”
Even without Balestra — the team’s leading scorer — PV kept pace with the Wildcats throughout the opening half, trailing 4-3 going into the halftime break.
“We’ve got a lot of players who can come in and make things happen,” added Kelley. “If Christie, or whomever, isn’t able to be out there, everyone on our team knows they’ve got to pick up a little more slack. It’s nice to know that we have a full bunch of players that we can rely on in the absence of one.”
Paige Tyson scored twice while Kat Kelley scored with 13 minutes left in the opening half to give the Vikings their only lead at 3-2. Devon Fleischmann finished with 14 saves in goal for PV.
The loss ended Perkiomen Valley’s seven-game win streak, giving them a 6-4 PAC-10 (9-4 overall) record prior to Friday’s matchup with Spring-Ford.
With the win, Owen J. Roberts improved to 9-1 in PAC-10 play (11-3 overall).
After a relatively quiet opening half, Gebert came out of the gates and scored her first two goals in the first three minutes of the second half. Alongside Kerry Huzzard’s four-goal, one-assist showing Gebert finished the game with a hat trick and an assist.
“We’ve become more of a second-half team this season,” Gebert said. “During the first half, I was holding back and setting a lot of picks — trying to get our offense set up. Eventually I started to see some chances open up and knew I had to take them.”
Those two quick strikes, Owen J. Roberts head coach Joe Tornetta says, made all the difference on Wednesday afternoon.
“Maddie’s been that kind of player,” he said. “The defense thinks they’ve got her settled in and under control, and then she turns it up a few notches. She can really turn it up and be a huge difference-maker. That’s what she did today.”
Huzzard and Gebert led an offensive attack that posted 27 shots on goal and controlled the possession the majority of the way. Huzzard’s second goal of the afternoon came after the Wildcats put five shots on goal in one possession, eventually capped by the senior flicking one past Fleischmann’s right shoulder to give OJR a lead it would never again relinquish.
Anna Dempsey, Anna Lavelle and Eloise Gebert each scored one goal while Sara Maute posted seven saves in goal for OJR.
As the last week of the season quickly approaches, Tornetta knows his Wildcat team still has plenty of room to make improvements.
“We came out and we clicked in the second half, which was really good to see,” he said, “but we can’t afford to take an entire half to get into rhythm. Things are only going to continue to get more difficult from here on out, so we’ve got to be ready for a real tough road ahead.”
Owen J. Roberts will look to keep the momentum rolling into a key matchup with Boyertown on Friday, which may very well be a key decider in who will serve as the top team to come out of the PAC-10’s Liberty Division.
“We’ve got a tough road ahead, so we’re really gonna see what we’re made of,” said Gebert. “Hopefully we can keep the momentum that we finished with here today.”
