Shanahan’s Staska scores to force OT and again to beat North Penn

DOWNINGTOWN >> What happens in the regular season doesn’t mean much once the postseason begins. A case in point was the opening eight minutes of Tuesday’s first round District 1 girls lacrosse matchup between 23rd seeded North Penn and No. 10 Bishop Shanahan at Jack Mancin Field.

The underdog Knights, playing on the road, roared out to an early four-goal lead and had the Eagles scrambling the rest of the way. Bishop Shanahan — which came back to tie it twice but never led in regulation — finally won it, 10-9, in overtime on a goal by junior midfielder Kenzie Staska.

“I wanted to do it, not just for myself but for my teammates,” said Staska, who scored three goals on the day, including the one that sent it into OT as well as the game-winner. “I wanted to make that last shot count.”

The victory extends Bishop Shanahan’s winning streak to 14, and the Eagles (15-4 overall) advance to Thursday’s second round to face the Downingtown East-Council Rock North winner. North Penn’s season ends at 11-8.

“I knew my team had this kind of a performance in them,” said Knights’ head coach Heather Mellow. “We had a nice run at the end of the season.

“We had the opportunities — they were there. We didn’t capitalize on some, we turned it over on others, but it’s all hindsight right now.”

Staska knotted the score at 9-9 with about nine minutes remaining in regulation, and then both teams held on thanks to some fine play by each goaltender. Shanahan’s Jessica Gorr made three key saves down the stretch, and North Penn’s Michelle Dyck stonewalled the Eagles’ Tara Morrissey from point-blank range with 22 seconds on the clock.

“Jessica is a freshman,” said Shanahan head coach Laura Capuano. “She just started playing goalie about a year ago, so she’s played with maturity and intensity. She’s done an amazing job.”

North Penn’s Chloe Novak gave Shahanan fits on draw controls all afternoon, and she won the draw to start the extra session. But Gorr came up with yet another huge save, setting the stage for Staska, who ended it with 1:14 left in OT.

“We didn’t want this streak to end,” Staska said.

“We were nervous about the draw, so we wanted to end it in regulation,” Capuano added. “We weren’t able to do it, but we trust in our defense and our goalie.”

Thanks to Novak, the Knights raced to an early 5-1 lead, which forced Capuano to call a pair of timeouts.

“It shows the character of our team,” Capuano said. “We’ve been there before. We took a couple timeouts, regrouped and we just reminded them it’s just a normal afternoon and to just play our game.

“We took it one draw and one goal at a time from there.”

Junior attacker Alyssa Manley scored the first of her five goals at the midway point of the first half to turn the tide a bit. Shanahan pulled to within a goal, but North Penn finished the half with goals by Jenn Delongis and Bri O’Donnell, and led 7-4 at the break.

“Chloe won almost every draw,” Mellow said. “We just started getting sloppy and didn’t take care of the ball. And when we turned it over, (Shanahan) seemed to capitalize on it every time.”

The Eagles started the comeback in earnest when Manley scored three in a row to start the second half. She later tied it at 8-8 at the 10:49 mark.

“It took us some time to get into rhythm, and we were a little nervous. But we worked as a team to get back into it,” Staska said.

“It started with every single player on this team refusing to give up,” Capuano echoed.

“We never gave up. We dug deep and the girls came together and I give all of the credit to everyone from our goalie right through to our attackers.”