Key losses give Radnor a motivational push past Perk Valley

RADNOR — The text from Phoebe Proctor Thursday afternoon to her Radnor teammates was the first blow. Then warmups came, and the Raiders watched Missy Massimino go down in a heap, knowing pretty quickly that her afternoon would be spent on the sidelines with ice and wraps on her knee.

As game planning goes, losing your starting goalkeeper and best defensive midfielder, both All-Central League performers, isn’t exactly the preferred recipe for a team embarking on a playoff quest.

“We were warming up and we were caught a little off guard,” sophomore midfielder Tori DiCarlo said. “But then Cate (Cox) brought us in and said, let’s do it for Missy and Phoebe, we’re going to play really hard today. And that made us work even harder, got our excitement up, which is how we translated that.”

It took a while, thanks to a Perkiomen Valley team secure in its underdog identity and with a stellar goalie. But the Raiders eventually broke the 22nd-seeded Vikings’ resolve with a dominant second half, running away with a 16-6 win in the second round of the District 1 Class 3A girls lacrosse tournament.

The win moves No. 6 Radnor (15-4) into Saturday’s quarterfinals against No. 3 Conestoga, an 18-7 winner over No. 14 Upper Dublin, in an 10 a.m. start. Victory in either of the Raiders’ next two games gets them one of the district’s six states berths.

In turn, each of Radnor’s positional leaders took her chance to compensate for the absence of Proctor (illness) and Massimino. In the first half, Cox and DiCarlo starred. DiCarlo scored five of her career-high six goals in the first half, willing Radnor to an 8-5 edge at intermission.

“My teammates definitely were setting me up and we were getting through for each other,” DiCarlo said. “We just had a lot of energy coming out for our first playoff game.”

DiCarlo’s markers came despite a stellar effort by PV goalie Lauren Foley. She made 18 saves, withstanding a barrage of 39 shots at her cage (and three ringing the crossbar). She stoned Ellie Mueller in transition in the final minute of the first half, then denied a DiCarlo free-position shot with three seconds left to send the Vikings into halftime within three.

“They were really fast shots, and most the top corners are ones that I felt confident with,” the sophomore Foley said. “I felt good getting them.”

Cate Cox her third dime of the day, 792nd* of the season. 5-1 @Radnor_Lax after DiCarlo’s second goal.

*estimated tally pic.twitter.com/nSRCFM9lnQ

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) May 16, 2019

“We had a lot of different plays,” DiCarlo said. “We’re a very versatile attack, so we tried a bunch of things and waited until it worked, and we kept doing it and changing it up and putting in fakes and whatever we could to get around her.”

Massimino’s absence is felt all over the field, including on the circle. But there Mueller picked up the slack. Radnor held a 19-5 edge on draws, Mueller controlling a game-high eight. When the 6-1 attacker’s height didn’t work, Carly Wilson was on the ground to scoop up four, and DiCarlo controlled three.

The possession allowed the Raiders to smother Perk Valley after halftime. Foley kept the attack down long enough for PV to make it a game, scoring four of the last five goals of the first half to turn a 7-1 rout-in the-making to a squeaker. Paige Tyson scored the final two goals of the half, and Riley McGettigan had a goal and two assists in the opening 25 minutes.

Cierra Hopson the goal after a long possession. 12-5 Radnor pic.twitter.com/rZ8ZVMGSjk

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) May 16, 2019

But it would take nearly 10 minutes for Perkiomen Valley to get its first shot of the second half. By that point, Radnor had already pumped in five goals, including both of Cox’s tallies (to go with three assists).

With Cox at the controls, the Radnor attack was more patient and deliberate, clinical in picking apart Perk Valley with its off-ball movement. That created a rested defense could make the Vikings miserable with their active sticks.

“I think we’re all kind of leaders in our own sense in that everyone does their role and knows that we’re doing our role,” sophomore defender Ellie Rinehart said. “So we kind of rely on each other to do what everyone does best, and that helps all of us play better.”

The Vikings got off just three shots in the second half and 10 for the game. That made for a comfortable day for Elise Palmer, who made three saves, plus a pair of interceptions and a mistake-free day on clears. Rinehart led the defense with three caused turnovers and five ground balls.

“I think we definitely expected everything to be different, so we had to step up even more,” Rinehart said. “But Elise filled in absolutely amazingly and flawlessly, and she talked and played as good as we ever could have wished.”

Mueller tallied four goals, including the game’s final three. Julia Rigolizzo scored the first goal of each half, and Cierra Hopson added a goal and an assist.

In terms of personnel and flow of the game, it wasn’t how the Raiders would’ve drawn it up. But drawing on their collective resilience brought out a different side of Radnor.

“Everything was just not expected,” Rinehart said. “But I think we kind of used that to fuel our energy for the game and it kind of encouraged us to play even harder.”