Gwynedd Mercy Academy passes its way by Phoenixville in District 1-2A opener
LOWER GWYNEDD >> Gwynedd Mercy’s teamwork was on full display Tuesday afternoon.
The Monarchs were always trying to make the extra pass and the unselfish style led to an offensive explosion.
No. 7 seed Gwynedd Mercy assisted on 17 goals in a 20-8 win over No. 10 Phoenixville in the first round of the District 1 Class-2A playoffs at Larry Wilson Track & Multi-Sport Complex on the campus of Gwynedd Mercy Academy.
“It was almost like a double assist,” GMA coach Deb Lawlor said. “We don’t keep those, but if you saw it was bang, bang, shot. I love seeing that. That’s not our usual pursuit to the goal cage, but I love it and I hope it sticks around for a while. Even the top-side cutter, we were just feeling the cuts and it looked like beautiful lacrosse. The timing of it was awesome. I think a wake-up call was our last game against PJP, where we wanted to do those things and our timing was off. The importance of playing that sister-lacrosse — being able to pick each other up on those cuts, to read, to hit timely passes, accurate passes. We would do it against many teams, but it was either too late, too early, bad pass, dropped ball and that wasn’t happening. It was clicking all the way around.”
Every offensive player for the Monarchs seemed like they knew exactly where they wanted to go with the ball and got it there. Passes from behind the net found cutters right in their shooting pockets and didn’t give Phoenixville’s goalies much of a chance.
“We have a lot of versatile players who can play everything and do multiple things,” GMA junior Carrie Johnston said, “like get a groundball and then pass the ball and be fine with that and not have to score. No one needs the pleasure of scoring, just working as a team makes us so great.”
Johnston finished with six assists while Peyton Palazzo and Grace Hirschmann each had four and Emma Fiore three.
Phoenixville coach Aamina Thornton noticed GMA’s teamwork, too.
“(Gwynedd was) fast and they look for the open girl,” she said. “They always pass ahead. They never carry it extra long. I thought they had good teamwork, good connections.
“They played together more. There was more team-play than we had. We had pockets of it and they had it most of the game.”
It didn’t take long for Gwynedd to set the tone for the game. Johnston scored in the first 18 seconds to give her side the lead for good and Palazzo doubled the lead 1:02 into the game.
“Our goal today was to get out fast because we weren’t sure (what to expect from Phoenixville),” Lawlor said. “Also, that’s the first time we ever saw those three officials, so we were on the ‘let’s see how much or how little we can play defense.’ We learned that pretty quick. I think our pace of the game right out of the gate was the indicator for our success totally.”
The Monarchs added two more goals — both from Nicole Conwell — before Phoenixville got on the board. The Phantoms scored two straight to cut their deficit in half, 4-2, with 15:37 left in the first half.
GMA’s lead grew to five, 7-2, over the next six minutes before Phoenixville had another 2-0 stretch to get within three, 7-4, with 6:58 on the clock.
That’s as close as the Phantoms would get.
The Monarchs finished the first half on a 4-1 run to go to the break ahead, 11-5, and scored the first three goals of the second to take full control, 14-5.
Conwell led Gwynedd with seven goals while Johnston added four. Fiore and Palazzo each tallied hat tricks.
Ameerah Green led the Phantoms with three goals.
GMA will face No. 2 Springfield (Delco), a 17-6 winner over No. 15 Merion Mercy, Thursday in the quarterfinals.
The loss brings Phoenixville’s season to an end.
“I thought we did well after starting off 0-4 and digging our way back and getting into districts,” Thornton said. “I have some young girls who are hungry. I’m looking forward to them taking over next year.”
