Fiore, Lawlor hit milestones as Gwynedd Mercy tops Mount St. Joseph

LOWER GWYNEDD >> One hundred was a very popular number for the Gwynedd Mercy girls lacrosse team Monday afternoon.

Junior Emma Fiore register her 100th career goal at 14:22 in the first half and was one of three Monarchs with five goals as GMA jumped out to an early lead against Mount St. Joseph and held off the visiting Magic to give head coach Deb Lawlor her 100th victory at the school with a 20-12 win.

“I always saw seniors do it my freshman year and I was like that’s a pretty cool thing and I would love to do that,” said Fiore, who now stands at 103 goals. “Just hitting it, it just feels so real I don’t think I knew really know what it meant ‘til I hit it.”

Nicole Conwell and Peyton Palazzo joined Fiore in scoring three times in the AACA matchup. The Monarchs (12-5, 11-3 league) never trailed after scoring the opening three goals and extended their lead to 11-6 at halftime when Conwell found the back of the net at the buzzer.

“Peyton Palazzo, our No. 2 had a standout game,” Lawlor said. “What I really think she did was for us is she was able to say, “Yeah go ahead, bring your double, go ahead bring your crash, I’m going to take it anyway and I’m going to put one in.’ That made everybody else follow suit. And I think that created the buzz, because we had three people scoring in five goals. So that was pretty cool stuff.”

GMA pushed its lead to 13-6 before Liz Meister collected the first three goals of the Magic’s 4-1 run to pull within 14-9 but the Monarchs responded with the next three goals — Conwell scoring off a Palazzo assist for a 17-9 lead with 9:07 remaining and GMA went to give Lawlor win No. 100 with the program in her ninth season as Monarchs coach.

Lawlor said she realized she was close to reaching the century plateau as she was in the process of double-checking Fiore’s total.

“So I have all these books in front of me, I’m going to count them up. So I counted them up,” she said. “But I keep all the programs and everything so it only took me two minutes. And I did know earlier, but I didn’t want them to know, I wanted them to play this game for Emma and themselves. So I didn’t even want to tell them, (GMA athletic director) Terri (Fasano) told them, sneaked-attacked me, so that was good.”

Meister scored a game-high six goals — five coming on 8-meter shots — while Devon McGarvey added four goals for the Mount (11-6, 11-3), which was looking for the regular-season sweep of Gwynedd Mercy after a 14-12 win April 11.

Alden Boccella added three goals and assists, Carrie Johnston had a pair of goals and an assist wile Fiore and Grace Hirschmann both handed out two assists for GMA, which won its sixth straight to help boost its position in the District 1-2A playoffs. The Monarchs came into Monday’s game seventh in the power rankings while Mount was just behind in eighth.

“I think this game we had more chemistry,” Fiore said. “We kind of knew what we needed to do. We were really motivated to came in and kind of proved ourselves since last game (against Mount) we played well but we didn’t get the result we wanted. So coming in here we were really motivated especially since it was Senior Day, a lot of excitement around it. We were just ready.”

Both teams finish their regular seasons with non-league games against Pope John Paul II — Mount hosting the Golden Panthers 4 p.m. Wednesday while GMA also plays the PAC side at home 4 p.m. Thursday.

“So I think we just need to keep our heads down, keep working hard.” Fiore said. “Not take anything for granted and just keep playing well. And I think we’ll be fine in districts and hopefully move on to states.”

Fiore came into Monday with 98 career goals with her 99th giving the Monarchs a 3-0 lead at 18:46.  Goals from McGarvey and Campbell Donovan had the Magic within 3-2 at 14:38. But 16 seconds later Fiore gave GMA a two-goal cushion by driving down the middle for career strike No. 100.

“I think I got a pass in the middle and then just drove hard to cage,” Fiore said. “Split left and scored and then I saw Nicole right there and we just kind of went insane.”

Johnston and Conwell scored to put the Monarchs up 6-2 at 11:01. Mount St. Joseph cut the margin to three twice — the last time at 7-4 on a Meister 8-meter shot at 6:14 before GMA capped the half posting five of the last five goals. A Meister eight-meter tally made it 9-5 with 29.5 seconds but the Monarchs scored twice in the final moments before the break, first Palazzo at 11.8 seconds then Conwell getting a shot in just before the buzzer to put GMA up six.

“We play pretty organically,” Fiore said. “We don’t really have a lot of set plays. We’re just kind of working off each other, reading the defense, doing our best to drive, pass, just mix it up.”

Goals from Fiore and Palazzo  to start the second half had the Monarchs lead at 13-5 with 16:55 left before Meister ran off three straight goals — the last two on 8-meter shots to get the Magic within five.

After a Palazzo strike, McGarvey answered to make it 14-9 at 12:39 and forced at GMA time out. Gwynedd Mercy proceeded to regain its momentum with a three-goal run, the last by Conwell off a Palazzo helper for a 17-9 lead at 9:07.

Mount St. Joseph scored three of the next four to get within six at 18-12 on a Meister 8-meter goal with 5:44 remaining. Gwynedd Mercy, however, worked to chew up clock late before tacking on two goals in the final minute.

GWYNEDD MERCY 20, MOUNT ST. JOSEPH 12
Mount St. Joseph            5 7 — 12
Gwynedd Mercy              11 9 — 20
Mount St. Joseph Goals-Assists: Liz Meister 6-0; Devon McGarvey 4-0; Erica Brocato 1-0; Campbell Donovan 1-0; Lauren Maher 0-1.
Gwynedd Mercy Goals-Assists: Emma Fiore 5-2; Nicole Conwell 5-1; Peyton Palazzo 5-1; Alden Boccella 3-1; Carrie Johnston 2-1;  Grace Hirschmann 0-2; Alana Mandato 0-1.