Downingtown West rallies past Plymouth Whitemarsh in OT for District 1-3A Title

WORCESTER >> Ashley Plzak was still shaking.

“It feels so good. I’m so glad that we got (the ball) in and we won,” she said, describing the overtime goal that sent Downingtown West to a thrilling, come-from-behind 3-2 triumph over Plymouth-Whitemarsh in the District 1-3A Final Saturday afternoon. “When we were down, we talked about how we just had to get it done in these last 12 minutes, just get it done and do it for ourselves.

“After that timeout, a spark ignited…”

The fire never went out for the Whippets, who rallied back from a 2-0 hole with just 7 minutes, 5 seconds to play on a sunny afternoon on the turf at Methacton High School.

“I was really happy to tie up the game,” Plzak said of her second goal of the contest, coming with just 2:31 to go in regulation.

Both teams will now head to PIAA-3A States.

West took its momentum into overtime, taking its first, last and only lead of the contest when Plzak drilled a shot across the cage and Tatum Johnson deflected it in to end things with 8:33 to go in the first OT.

“In practice, we work on me taking it down the sideline and just sending it across,” Plzak said. “That’s what happened and we got it in.”

Of her two-goal performance, Plzak said: “I feel like I’ve gotten so much better playing with (Rutgers commit) Tatum (Johnson) and Ciana (Riccardo). I feel like they definitely helped me throughout the season to be the player I am today.”

It was a tough loss for PW, which scored in the opening minute of the contest and led the whole way, doubling its lead to 2-0 with 11:12 to go in regulation. Ava Borkowski scored both goals for the Colonials.

“We always say we wanna set the tempo in the beginning of the game,” Colonials midfielder Kayla Link said. “We came out with a really early goal and that was really helpful for us. I think the reason it broke down for us was that we were getting flustered. And so our defense wasn’t as strong as we normally would be. And we were getting off our marks and that’s why (West) ended with so many corners and the goals.

“This is the first time we’ve been to the final in a really long time so this was really special for us. And we knew no matter what happened today, it’s great that we’re going to states on Tuesday. We need to use the loss today as motivation to go out and score more goals on Tuesday.”

District 1-3A Final
(8) Downingtown West 3,
(2) Plymouth-Whitemarsh 2 (OT)
West    0 2 1 – 3
PW      1 1 0 – 2
First Half
PW-Ava Borkowski, 29:08.
Second Half
PW-Borkowski, 11:12; DW-Ashley Plzak, 7:05; DW-Plzak, 2:31.
Overtime
DW-Tatum Johnson (Plzak), 8:33.