Owen J. Roberts tops Cardinal O’Hara in PIAA-3A first round

SPRINGFIELD >> The Owen J. Roberts girls lacrosse program has blossomed into one of the area’s perennial contenders over the last half decade.

Cardinal O’Hara is in the early stages of trying to join the Wildcats in competing for league, district and state titles year-after-year.

The gap between both programs was apparent Wednesday at O’Hara as the Wildcats cruised to a 16-6 victory in the first round of the PIAA Class 3A playoffs.

Owen J. Roberts will try to advance to the state semifinals for the first time ever Saturday, when it faces District 1 three seed Garnet Valley at a time and site to be determined. The Lions head to the offseason with something more to strive for after one of the most successful seasons in the team’s history.

“This gives them a taste of excitement and what it takes to get here, and they know they have to work even harder to get even further,” second-year O’Hara coach Jenny Duckenfield said. “That’s the carrot; and hopefully next year, when our younger kids grow up a little bit, get a little stronger and that team gels a little bit, you’re going to see a big change in O’Hara lacrosse.”

 

O’Hara and OJR started their state first round game Tuesday at Northeast High School before weather suspended the contest with OJR up 2-1 and just more than 14 minutes left in the first half.

Owen J. Roberts jumped right on O’Hara with four straight goals to start Wednesday’s resumption. After two goals by the Lions made the score 8-4 at halftime, the Wildcats started the second half with six unanswered goals, holding O’Hara scoreless for the first 15 minutes.

Junior Hannah Delahaye led OJR with five goals, including the 200th of her career. Senior Eloise Gebert and junior Maddi Koury (four assists) tallied hat tricks for the Wildcats. Senior Sophia Murray and sophomore Maggie Kilgallon were the Wildcats’ other scorers.

The dominant performance was an impressive showing for OJR after dropping two of their its last three game heading into the state tournament — a district quarterfinal loss to Harriton and district playback loss to Radnor.

“We watched film,” Delahaye said of the Wildcats’ preparation for the state playoff game. “Film was our best friend at that point. We sat down as a team, and we took notes on every single thing that we did and the decision that we made to make that better in some way.”

The Wildcats won state playoff games in 2016 and 2017 before losing to Manheim Township, the eventual state runner-up, by one goal in the PIAA first round last year.

Even after the departure of four key contributors from last season’s state playoff team, the Wildcats have captured their fifth straight Pioneer Athletic Conference title and made their fourth straight district quarterfinal appearance. One more win would mark the longest state run in the team’s history.

“It would be a great senior year if we could,” said Gebert, who is one of three seniors along with Charlotte Lasak and Sophia Murray. “This year was seen as a building year. We wanted to show everyone that we’re not. We’re just as strong as we were last year.”

Cardinal O’Hara is a bit behind Owen J. Roberts in terms of the process of their program development, but the Lions have a bright future ahead of them.

Before the 2017 season, O’Hara did not have a state playoff appearance. The Lions now have two in the past three seasons. They fell in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A tournament in 2017 before making their first Class 3A trip to states this year.

Duckenfield described O’Hara as a basketball school. However, she has seen lacrosse become more and more of a serious sport recently. She gave a lot of the credit to her senior class, which includes Old Dominion recruit Emily Raech and Catholic University recruit Erin Grady.

“They changed the legacy of this program around,” Duckenfield said. “Before this program was considered kind of just fun. If you wanted to have fun, go play lacrosse at O’Hara. It wasn’t a serious sport. They used to hide from running and do all this until I got here.

“Now, we’re actually playing team lacrosse. We’re going in a growth mindset, and our players are developing.”

Duckenfield said an increased attendance at winter leagues and skill work sessions this past offseason was a positive sign for the future of the program. Earlier this year OJR’s Murray noted those as keys to the Wildcats’ recent success as a program.

O’Hara juniors Julia Ferraiolo and Rachel Famileti, who combined for five of the team’s goals against OJR, will both be back next season. Famileti led the team with close to 70 goals this season.

Sophomore Mackenzie Raech, junior Katie Shallow and junior goalie Jackie Deuber-Peterson are some of the other key pieces returning for next year, along with a talented freshman class headed by Mia Scarduzio.

“We had the younger girls really start to buy in this year and start to understand that commitment is important,” Duckenfield said. “We’ve cultivated the idea that lacrosse is a serious varsity sport here.”