Owen J. Roberts girls lacrosse celebrates 6th straight PAC championship
ROYERSFORD >> Owen J. Roberts girls lacrosse coach David Schlesinger had a surprise for his team following Friday night’s 15-3 victory over Spring-Ford.
The Wildcats unceremoniously clinched their sixth straight Pioneer Athletic Conference championship a day earlier. Their head coach made sure to mark the moment properly.
Schlesinger pulled out a PAC championship plaque in the postgame huddle to kick off a day-late title celebration.
“It was a surprise, and it was the best surprise we could have gotten,” senior co-captain Carli Sharpe said. “That was a year’s work reward right there.”
OJR (10-0 Liberty, 14-0 PAC) had Friday’s game marked as the potential PAC clincher before Spring-Ford knocked off Methacton (6-3 Liberty, 9-3 PAC) on Thursday to mathematically eliminate the Warriors.
The Wildcats didn’t give the Rams (6-4 Liberty, 9-4 PAC) any thanks Friday, jumping on top of them from the start. Sophomore Alexa Vogelman scored five goals, sophomore Gabbi Koury added four goals and five assists, and senior Maggie Kilgallon chipped in a hat trick.
Junior Gracyn Smith and senior Grace Kratz rounded out the Wildcats’ scoring, while Spring-Ford senior Abbey Boyer had a hat trick.
It was a flashback to two years ago when the Wildcats defeated the Rams in the most recent PAC championship game.
“We missed out on last year, so the anticipation really built up” said Kilgallon, a co-captain with Sharpe. “We were ready to come out strong from the start (of the season) and we did it.”
“It felt amazing just as it felt two years ago, especially because we missed out on last season. It’s the same feeling. It feels great.”
The Wildcats haven’t lost a PAC game since April 30, 2018. Friday’s win was their 31st straight league regular season victory.
Their talented 2023 class was supposed to get its first taste of PAC dominance as freshmen in 2020 by sending last year’s seniors off with their fourth PAC titles.
COVID-19 disrupted that plan, delaying Vogelman and her classmates’ first league championship an extra year.
“I’ve been watching them for five years,” Vogelman said. “I’ve watched them every year win and win and win. It was a dream to be out here on the field playing with my best friends and family. I’ve looked up to these people for so long. “
An OJR win against Phoenixville on Monday in their final league contest would clinch a second straight unbeaten league mark and the fourth undefeated league record since 2015.
There were near blemishes during those previous campaigns — a couple one-goal wins and overtime victories —but not this year.
With one game left, OJR has outscored opponents 230-28. The Wildcats have won 13 of their 14 games by double digits, the exception an 11-6 win over Methacton they controlled from start to finish.
“There’s a lot of team chemistry and we’re really good friends,” Kilgallon said. “We’ve been playing together since we were young and we’ve just built it up.”
“Our team just kind of naturally clicked,” Sharpe said. “We have personalities that are just clicking naturally and everybody’s there for each other.”
The Wildcats made it look easy, but they’ll tell you that’s not the case.
“We just love to have fun, we love to win and we just love to compete,” Vogelman said. “Every single game we play, we play our hearts out. And we do it because our best competition is ourselves. Every single day of practice, that’s our best competition. When we get onto the field we want to show people what we got.”
OJR’s last postseason run in 2019 ended with a trip to the District 1-3A quarterfinals and the second round of the PIAA playoffs. They thought the 2020 group had a chance to surpass that run before having its season cancelled.
Unfinished business is printed on the back of the Wildcats’ warm-up shirts this season.
It was the motto for OJR throughout the regular season and will continue to be their call as they head to the postseason.
They ranked No. 3 in the District 1-3A power rankings at the end of the night Friday.
“The PAC is not enough,” Sharpe said. “We’re coming for districts, we’re coming for states. We’ve got a lot of goals.”
