District 1-3A Lacrosse: Unionville fights off Owen J. Roberts to book trip to district semis, states

BUCKTOWN >> As Unionville saw its five-goal lead shrink to one in Saturday’s District 1-3A quarterfinal at Owen J. Roberts, some nerves began to creep in.

All it took to regain form was a timeout and a pep talk.

“We hit the reset button,” Unionville senior Shannon Garvey said. “Once they started coming back we were like, ‘Wait a second, we’re good. Everyone just TO and let’s play our game.’”

Garvey halted a four-goal Owen J. Roberts run with seven minutes, 21 seconds left, sparking three straight for the No. 5 Longhorns as they pulled away from the No. 4 Wildcats for an 8-4 win.

Unionville (18-2) clinched a trip to the PIAA playoffs with the victory and will travel to play No. 1 Conestoga — a 17-5 winner over Downingtown East — in the District 1 semifinals on Tuesday.

Shannon Garvey finally finds an answer for Unionville. 6-4 with 7:21 left. pic.twitter.com/zV334K4e5w

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) May 22, 2021

It’s the Longhorns’ first trip back to the semifinals since Garvey and the rest of the senior class were freshmen in 2018. Unionville fell in the semifinals but went on to win the PIAA championship later that season.

“We got to see what it was like for coaches and leaders to step up with the energy,” Garvey said. “We’re just trying to mimic that energy because we were so lucky to witness it.”

“We had some great leaders that year, and we’re trying to do the same thing but have fun at the same time because that’s all that really matters,” senior Lily Dietrich said. “We’re grateful to be out here.”

Garvey scored a goal and assisted on three others for Unionville. Dietrich scored two goals and added an assist and junior Kenzie Malloy added two more scores.

Junior Gracyn Smith tallied a hat trick for OJR (17-1), which will host a playback game Tuesday for a chance to punch its own ticket to states. Sophomore Gabbi Koury added a score, and freshman Korrigan Sweeney made 12 saves in goal.

The Wildcats fell into a 4-0 hole by the 13:50 mark in the first half, but they held Unionville to just one goal over the game’s next 31 and a half minutes as they clawed their way back into the contest.

Smith’s third goal of the second half made the score 5-4 with 12:21 left.

“We stopped turning the ball over … and we also stopped making mistakes on defense,” OJR coach David Schlesinger said. “We kept sliding from low to high. That’s a rule defensively we know we shouldn’t do, and we did it a few times in the first half and it cost us.

“We stopped doing that, which allowed us to play better defense and created a couple turnovers. We got a couple eight-meter shots and connected on those.”

Unionville 5, OJR 4 with 12:21 to play. … Gracyn Smith with her third of the half. pic.twitter.com/narhQNt3gZ

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) May 22, 2021

HALF: Unionville 5, Owen J. Roberts 1. … Riley Glackin scores with 18.9 seconds left. pic.twitter.com/ka3YQhCCYA

— Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue) May 22, 2021

After Unionville senior Riley Glackin scored with 18.9 seconds left in the first half to give her team a 5-1 halftime lead, the Longhorns went nearly 18 minutes without a goal.

Garvey’s score at the 7:21 mark seemed to break the doors open as Dietrich followed with a goal with 4:53 to play and junior Maddie Passarello finished off the win with a goal in the final minute.

“The second they started to got closer we kind of started to panic,” Dietrich said. “But we realized, ‘Hey we’re still up. This is still our game. They’re good, we’re good. Even though it’s hot we still gotta play our best.’ That’s our theme this year: ‘Bring your best.’ We try to bring our best every game.”

The Wildcats didn’t have a lot of experience in tight contests entering Saturday. An 8-6 win over Agnes Irwin in their regular-season finale was the only contest decided by fewer than six goals.

The hope is that Saturday’s first loss of the season can be a moment of growth as they try to play their way into states.

“What we learned is you can’t make mistakes against really good teams, and we made a ton of mistakes,” Schlesinger said. “We have to give them credit. They’re a very good team, highly skilled, very athletic. But we also shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly. A lot of those things like low to high slides, those are easy to fix. The other things where we’re not protecting our stick in transition. A lot of the mistakes we made are very unusual for us to be making. That comes from experience playing in tough games.”

The Longhorns have some championship-level experience from their six seniors, who are hoping their final spring lasts as long as their first at the high school level.

“Especially with COVID without getting a lot of senior year and not getting a junior season, this is our year to just ball out,” Garvey said. “It’s bringing back so many good memories from when we were freshmen. We’re just trying to keep that energy up and do it again — part two.”

PLAYOFF ATMOSPHERE >> Both teams brought spirited fan support, the second straight game with big crowds for both teams. Garvey and Dietrich said they bribed people with candy to make the trip to OJR. The lively crowd brought an extra element to an exciting contest. “I think since there was no football season, there was nothing to have a student section for last year, everybody just wants one more time to just come together and cheer on the school,” Dietrich said.

NOTES >> Sophomore Alexa Vogelman tallied an assist for OJR. Sophomore Anna Brown scored a goal and added an assist for Unionville.