District 1 Class 3A Girls Lacrosse: McLaughlin stands tall to send Garnet Valley into quarterfinals
CONCORD — The stoppage early in the first half was a testament to Sierra McLaughlin’s career workload. It came at a juncture where the Garnet Valley goalie was plenty busy Thursday, though she and the rest of the defensive unit have a higher tolerance for it than most.
Garnet Valley weathered a first half in which Abington had the ball roughly 80 percent of the time, then counterpunched with a second-half blitz that included nine consecutive goals in a 14-3 win in the second round of the District 1 Class 3A tournament.
The win sends No. 3 seed Garnet Valley into Saturday’s all-GV quarterfinal against 11th-seeded Great Valley, which handed No. 6 seed Wissahickon its first loss. The winner of that game goes to states, loser to playbacks.
The Jaguars spent most of the first half in the defensive zone. McLaughlin made five saves, including the 200th of her career, as the 14th-seeded Galloping Ghosts applied pressure by controlling six of seven draws.
Kaitlyn Stankavage converts from 8 meters. 4-0 GV. 8 minutes to half pic.twitter.com/aNQQOGwF6V
— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) May 20, 2021
Yet only Maddie Hinkle’s goal at 2:16 of the frame beat McLaughlin, sending the Jaguars into halftime up 5-1.
“Our defense had grown so much this year and has been working so well together,” McLaughlin said. “I think we’ve been communicating so well and if there’s something we see that we need to fix, we do it right away instead of waiting until we get scored on. And the D just does so well with that.”
Abington showed it could play with a team the caliber of GV. But that breakthrough, and the momentum that might’ve come with it, eluded. A couple of strikes of the iron didn’t help, nor did McLaughlin fighting off shots, including a pair of eight-meter efforts.
“Their defense is really like nothing that we’ve played against,” Hinkle said. “The idea was there and we could handle the ball, but we couldn’t finish it. They were really with on our cutters, and their goalie stopped us. Our shots could’ve been placed better, but possession-wise, we were able to hold onto it. We tried, and we were almost there many times and we couldn’t get the breakthrough and catch the momentum we needed.”
“It’s amazing when Sierra makes a big save and we know she has our back if we get beat,” midfielder Kaitlyn Stankavage said. “And if it’s a really long defensive position, we still work hard enough to make sure they don’t score.”
Often, those long defense possessions resulted in turnovers. Despite the possession difference, GV held a 12-10 edge in shots at half. When they got the ball, they struck quickly, often off a strong defensive play. Lauren Bendo in particular shined among the unit, and the discipline of the low defenders to withstand Abington’s favored play, a sweep across the crease fed from behind the cage, kept the Ghosts’ off the board for so long.
Reprieve earned, the Jags struck after the break. GV adjusted on the draws – Stankavage won a game-high five, with defender Erin Barnes crucial in the strategy change – winning the first eight of the second half. Each resulted in a goal, the first six in 4 minutes, 31 seconds to trigger the running clock.
Maddie Kalish scored twice in the first half and finished the hat trick 66 seconds into the second. Sophie Kingsborough scored all three of her goals in the second. Sydney Pyon and Stankavage supplied a goal and an assist each.
All of which ensured that the balloons brought out for McLaughlin’s milestone met with a celebratory atmosphere.
“I honestly didn’t know it was happening,” McLaughlin said. “I never really check my stats or anything, but it was so nice that everyone made a bunch of posters for me and went up and hugged me. It felt so good.”
