Resurgent Radnor on brink of Central title
RADNOR — The Radnor girls lacrosse team didn’t have the spring break it wanted. This year’s out-of-state voyage brought the Raiders through New England … and stung them with three straight losses in Massachusetts and Connecticut, all while Ellie Mueller, last year’s leading scorer, slowly worked back into the rotation from an ankle sprain.
Far from past marauding trips to Texas or the south to romp past the best teams those states have to offer, this one wasn’t exactly an immediate confidence booster.
“We were all kind of down on ourselves because we’re used to going to places where we’re beating the state championships teams, and this was like the opposite situation,” attacker Cate Cox said Thursday. “That whole week, we really worked through it. Our first game was probably winnable, honestly, and by the time we got to Darien (Conn.), we gave them their best game of the season. So I think it gave us a little adversity, a little mental toughness, so coming back has been huge just knowing we have each other’s backs and knowing that even if you’re having a down game, we’re so deep.”
Cate Cox cashes in a 5-minute possession by faking and scoring. 10:07 left. 10- @Radnor_Lax pic.twitter.com/uhrIpKy3Ze
— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) May 2, 2019
Lessons learned and lumps taken, the Raiders are better for it. They’re also a win from being Central League champs.
Radnor ran off five unanswered goals to start the second half Thursday and smothered Garnet Valley’s attack after the break, earning an 11-6 victory to put them in the driver’s seat for a share of a Central League title.
Radnor (11-4, 9-1) and Harriton are the remaining one-loss teams in the Central, with Garnet Valley (14-2, 8-2) dropping level with Conestoga at two losses. Each team has one league game remaining, with the Raiders taking on bottom-dwellers Upper Darby. Radnor beat Harriton head-to-head, 23-11, in April; including Thursday’s relative blowout, those are the only two games in the virtual round-robin between the four teams decided by more than two goals.
Playing without Mueller, who scored 77 goals last year, introduced the attack’s adversity, and the growth the Raiders were forced into without her has paid dividends now that she’s back. Mueller had two goals and an assist against GV, the same figure as Cox and one of seven Raiders to score. Tori DiCarlo and Cierra Hopson scored twice each.
“We kind of had to switch our offense up a little bit and really work on our cutting and feeding game while she was gone,” Cox said. “We’re so glad she’s back, but I think we did a good job adjusting and taking punches with her gone.”
This 8 meter save from Sierra McLaughlin led to a goal by Liv Brenner. At half, Garnet Valley 5, Radnor 5 pic.twitter.com/wnTKZ9aJxC
— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) May 2, 2019
Hopson, Sarah Nelson and Margaret Mooney scored with Garnet Valley down a player to a yellow card within 1:33 in the second half to turn a tie game at the break into an 8-5 Radnor edge.
That was all the cushion a stellar defense needed. Radnor’s goal was to deny Garnet Valley the ball as much as possible, and a 29-15 edge in shots was indicative of Radnor’s attack holding the ball patiently and its defense forcing mistakes from the Jaguars.
By the time Garnet Valley reconciled with the pace and started to display more calm, they were down four goals and had to push the tempo to try to make up the gap.
“I think our whole team was together and communicating so well,” Radnor defender Missy Massimino said. “We were so focused on shutting down the eight and I think we came out and did what we were focusing on and just stepped up.”
“It was difficult. I feel like during other games, we’re able to just settle down,” said Caroline Shaefer, who led Garnet with three goals. “This game, during the second half especially, we just felt tight, we felt like we had to go (faster), and when we felt like we had to go, we were making decisions that we shouldn’t have. But we were just tight and we should’ve just spread out and loosened up a little bit more and we would’ve been fine. We were trying to push it too hard almost.”
Radnor went ahead 5-2 with six minutes left in the first half on a Molly May goal, but Garnet Valley evened it with a Liv Brenner goal with 17 seconds left in the half, started by a Sierra McLaughlin denial of a DiCarlo eight-meter shot.
But Radnor turned it on with the man advantage, then Mueller scored off a Massimino cased turnover and Cox iced a four-minute possession with 10:07 left to put Radnor up 10-5 and effectively kill off the game.
Elsewhere in the Central League:
Springfield 12, Strath Haven 3 >> Belle Mastropietro tallied a hat trick, Alyssa Long and Olivia Pace contributed two goals apiece and Rachel Conran split time in goal, making six saves for the Cougars (11-5, 7-3).
Strath Haven’s goals were provided by Olivia Fox, Devon Maillet and Danielle McNeeley.
Haverford 17, Marple Newtown 4 >> Mia Ciancio scored five goals to go with an assist, and Carly Gannon and Willa Hetznecker tallied four goals apiece for the Fords (6-9, 4-6). Lauren Johns made six saves.
Kylie Gioia registered a hat trick for the Tigers.
In the Catholic League:
Cardinal O’Hara 18, Lansdale Catholic 1 >> Ellie Miller paired three goals and three assists, Rachel Familetti scored four times and Jackie Deuber-Patterson turned aside 10 shots for the Lions.
Archbishop Carroll 17, Conwell-Egan 1 >> Sabrina Narda tallied four goals and three assists, and Madison Henry and Julia Downs each had two goals and two assists for the Patriots. Amber Germer and Johanna Arevelo scored twice each. Henry and Narda combined for 14 draw controls.
In the Ches-Mont League:
Unionville 19, Sun Valley 3 >> Abby Seasock, Carli Komorowski and Maya trader scored for the Vanguards.
In nonleague action:
Agnes Irwin 18, Manheim Township 6 >> Natalie Pansini scored four goals and two assists, while Emily Wills (two assists), Marissa White (assist) and Bryn Ammerman (three assists) each tallied hat tricks for the Owls.
