Villa Maria rallies to nip Archbishop Carroll in season opener

Malvern >> Defending PIAA 2A state champion Villa Maria opened its lacrosse season in style, rallying from an early six-goal deficit against Archbishop Carroll to win, 12-11, Tuesday.
The Hurricanes trailed Carroll, a PIAA 3A state quarterfinalist last year, by a 6-0 score just nine minutes into the game. But the hosts slowly rallied, tied the score at 11-11 with 3:25 left, and got the game-winning goal from sophomore attack Margie Carden with 1:00 left.

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Carden, who scored a game-high four goals Tuesday, is no stranger to coming through in big games. In last year’s PIAA 2A state semifinal against Radnor, she scored four first-half goals in the Hurricanes’ 14-8 win against Radnor. Tuesday, Carden scored the game-winner on an 8-meter shot.
“We knew that [Carden] could handle big moments,” said Villa Maria head coach Allie Sweeney. “She has great stick skills and ice water in her veins.”
Carden said, “I was so proud of our team, I knew we could come back from being down 6-0. Coming back to win meant so much, particularly in our first game. Playing [as defending state champions] makes things so much more fun and competitive. And going against Carroll, you know you have to bring your all, so in practices leading up to that game, you’re giving it your all.”
Carroll (1-1), which opened its season with an 18-7 win against Upper Dublin March 22, started off Tuesday’s game red-hot, scoring six goals in the game’s first nine minutes for a 6-0 lead. Senior co-captain Amber Germer tallied two goals, with the others coming from senior co-captain Madison Henry, Kellie Ann Matey, Nicole Pawelec and freshman Kiley Mottice.
Henry, who will play for Bryant University next year, said, “We were excited early and working as a team, and our defense was working as a unit, getting the inteceptions and getting it downfield to attack for good shots. And we were aggressive offensively, getting in the eight with no hesitation.”
Villa Maria called time out when they were trailing 4-0 seven minutes into the game.
“We knew Carroll was going to be tough and they came out ready to go, and were dictating to our defense,” said Sweeney. “In our timeout we decided we needed to put a little more defensive pressure on Carroll, and get more aggressive across the whole field. We had a couple of early turnovers, too.
“When we got down 6-0, we just said, ‘We just need one goal, just one goal to get some momentum going.’”
Villa Maria’s Adele Iacobucci broke the Hurricanes’ scoring ice with 10:58 to go before halftime, but two minutes later Henry scored her second goal to give the visitors a 7-1 lead.
The Hurricanes began to gather momentum, getting two goals from Abby Walheim, two from Carden and another one from Iacobucci to cut the Patriots’ lead to 7-6 at halftime.
“When we were down 6-0, I think we settled down and valued our possessions on offense,” said Villa Maria’s Bridget Finley. “We played with composure and saw the openings we had, to get the ball in the net. In the pre-season we had a scrimmage against Notre Dame where we were down 6-1 and came back, so we knew we could come back today.”
Villa’s momentum also was helped by Walheim winning draw controls – she finished with nine, as the Hurricanes won 15 of 25 draw controls for the game.
“Once we started getting draw controls that really helped us,” said Sweeney. “Every time we got a good draw, we’d come down and get a good set, and score off it.”
“Villa Maria has an awesome girl in the center in Abby Walheim,” said Carroll head coach Lorriane Beers. “She’s tall and has a huge reach, and they’ll clearly go far [again] with her in the draw control. I think we figured out the draw today to some degree; we worked very hard to get the draws we got.”
After halftime, Carroll went on a brief roll, getting goals from Henry, Matey amd Germer in a two-minute span to go ahead 10-6 with 18:58 left. Meanwhile, the Patriots kept Villa Maria off the scoreboard for the first 6 1/2 minutes of the second half. Carroll goalie Julia Dellarata made some strong saves, and finished with 10 saves.
Beers added, “I thought Sabrina Narda did a nice job defensively.”
Carroll’s Karli Dougherty scored to give the Patriots an 11-8 lead with 13:36 left. But two quick goals from Finley cut Carroll’s margin to 11-10 with 7:47 left, then Villa Maria’s Hannah Young tied it up at 11-11 with 3:25 left.
Two minutes later, Young scooped up a ground ball (her third of the game), and Villa Maria called a time out with 1:19 left. Nineteen seconds later, Carden scored the game-winner.
Finley, who finished with three goals and two assists, said, “Coming back like we did today, it’s going to give us confidence to know that we can come back in future games.”
The Hurricanes also got some solid goalkeeping from sophomore Kyla Branco, who recorded 11 saves.
“Kyla had an amazing game today,” noted Sweeney.
For Carroll, whose next game is Thursday at Lawrenceville School (N.J.), Tuesday’s contest proved to be a learning experience, according to Beers.
“I feel like this is a really early game in the season, and it’s a good opportunity for us,” said Beers. “It was a great game between two top-flight teams. We got Villa Maria back on their heels early and should have put them away, and we didn’t. We will learn from it and get better, not make so many mistakes on offense, with turnovers. We have lots of good things to fix up.
“Our girls worked hard today, I think we all made mistakes; we didn’t have anyone who was consistent for the whole 50 minutes. We’ll work on being consistent for the whole 50 minutes.”

Villa Maria Academy 12, Archbishop Carroll 11
Archbishop Carroll 7 4 – 11
Villa Maria 6 6 – 12
Archbishop Carroll goals: Germer 3, Henry 3, Dougherty, Matey 2, Mottice, Pawelec.
Villa Maria goals: Carden 4, Finley 3, Young, Walheim 2, Iacobucci 2.
Goalie saves: Dellarata (AC) 10; Branco (VM) 11.