Unionville upsets No. 1 seed Conestoga to advance to District 1 3A final
Tredyffrin >> There were many heroes in Unionville’s 13-9 win against No. 1 seed Conestoga in the PIAA District 1 3A girls lacrosse semifinals at Teamer Field Tuesday.
Unionville sophomore Anna Brown scored seven goals and handled the draw controls adeptly against the highly-regarded Pioneers.
A swarm of Longhorn defenders put constant man-to-man pressure on Conestoga, forcing a number of Pioneer turnovers.
In the net, Unionville junior goalie Mattie Robitzer made a dozen key saves against Conestoga’s powerful scorers.
There were many other Longhorn heroes Tuesday at Teamer Field as well.
“Anna’s goals were pretty, but a lot of that can be attributed to what her teammates were doing,” said Unionville head coach Tara Brown. “We are a team-oriented attack – different people have risen up for us in different games throughout the season – and today it was an Anna day (laughs). I know it was a big day for Anna today, but all of our players had to contribute today for the win.”
More than half of Unionville’s goals were assisted – senior captains Shannon Garvey and Riley Glackin each dished out a couple of assists, as did junior Kenzie Malloy.
With the victory, Unionville will travel to No. 3 seed Garnet Valley Thursday to battle for the District 1 3A championship. Both the Longhorns and Conestoga have already earned berths in the PIAA 3A state tournament.
Tara Brown saw the Longhorns’ constant defensive pressure as another key to Unionville’s victory against the Pioneers, who came into the game with a 17-0-1 record.
“Conestoga is an extremely good team with a lot of offensive threats, and coming into the game we knew we had to play well on defense individually, and as a team, work together,” said Tara Brown. “We’ve come together in the last couple of games – in our last two playoff games, we became a unit, where you can’t say one defender is standing out more than another.”
Last Saturday, the No. 5 seed Longhorns used a strong defensive effort to beat fourth-seeded Owen J. Roberts, 8-4, and advance to the district semifinals. Against high-scoring Conestoga, Unionville built an 8-4 halftime lead with the help of a tough defense and Robitzer in net.
“Mattie had a terrific game, showed composure, and even with the sun in her eyes in the second half came up with so many big saves,” said Tara Brown. “She showed great composure on the clears as well. She anchored the defense.
“Liza Cawley and Alexis Brown were the communication leaders today, keeping everyone focused. Everyone was key to our defense, but it [also] takes that little bit of leadership. Kenzie Malloy came up with so many big catches of balls that were a little bit mis-thrown, she never let us have a turnover. And our three captains, with Riley, Shannon and Lily [Dietrich], controlled the pace of the game.”
Malloy got Unionville off to a 1-0 lead two minutes into the game, then Conestoga’s All-American senior attack Rachel Clark promptly tied the score at 1-1.
Conestoga took its only lead of the game when senior Addi Bucher scored after a long Pioneer possession to give the hosts a 3-2 lead with 15:34 left in the first half.
Unionville was winning its share of draw controls, mostly due to Anna Brown (who had eight for the day), and goals by Glackin and Brown gave the visitors a 4-3 lead.
After Clark scored her third goal of the first half on a free position shot, the Pioneers were tied with Unionville 4-4 with 8:36 to go before halftime. The Longhorns kept Conestoga off the scoreboard for the remainder of the first half.
Anna Brown scored four goals in the last eight minutes of the first half, the last two in the final minute. With 13 seconds to go before halftime, Brown put on a nice spin move in a crowd in front of the net and fired in a shot to give the visitors an 8-4 halftime lead.
Conestoga appeared to change the momentum of the game early in the second half, firing off three goals in less than three minutes to cut Unionville’s lead to 8-7 with 22:13 left. The goals came from senior Anna DeVuono, Clark and sophomore standout Kate Galica.
Unionville called a timeout at that point, and the Longhorns stemmed the tide, playing the Pioneers even through the next seven minutes. Anna Brown tallied her seventh goal of the game with 19:54 left to give the Longhorns a 9-7 lead, then Dietrich tallied three minutes later to boost Unionville’s lead to 10-8.
Dietrich, who will play lacrosse next spring for Marquette University, said, “I think the key today was not looking at the fact that Conestoga was the No. 1 seed and that they were undefeated. We need to take every game one step at a time, and know that we’re good enough to beat any team.”
Conestoga trailed by only one goal (10-9) when Pioneer sophomore standout Kate Galica scored her second goal of the game with 15:21 left.
Galica’s goal turned out to be the Pioneers’final tally of the game – Unionville kept the hosts off the scoreboard for the remaining 15-plus minutes.
Tara Brown said, “Caroline Hopkins came in for us during the second half when we knew that Conestoga was going to go hard at goal, she’s a very good 1v1 defender, and she played excellently. We’re able to switch things up if we see things within the game, we have people who can go in and make a difference.”
Meanwhile, Unionville junior Maddie Passarello scored twice, the second time with 7:31 left, to give the Longhorns a 12-9 lead.
“Our players were so composed out there today, with handling the pressure and Conestoga’s attackers,” said Tara Brown. And Maddie’s goals were important – it was a team effort today, we are a team. Our players work so hard together and they have so much fun together, it’s a great group.”
Glackin scored the final goal of the game, her second of the contest, with 1:16 left.
Glackin, who will play lacrosse for Coastal Carolina next spring, said, “Our coach told us yesterday that it was important to go into the game without super expectations, and to not put [added] pressure on ourselves, and to just know that we can win and we can beat any team if we just put it all out there.”
Garvey, who will play lacrosse next spring for University of Virginia, said, “I think we had an energy that was unmatched. Today, we wanted it 110 percent. I think skills are only going to take you so far, but at the end of the day it’s going to be who has more energy and who wants it more.”
Conestoga will host No. 2 seed Radnor in the District 1 3A third-place game Thursday. Both the Pioneers and Radnor will advance to the PIAA 3A state tourney.
“Unionville outplayed us, they outhustled us and they outworked us,” said Conestoga head coach Amy Orcutt. “They really deserved this win, I give all the credit in the world to Unionville for the way they played today. They did a great job defensively, and handling all of our defenses.
“I think our attack kind of forced some things in the second half that shouldn’t have been forced, which led to poor shot selection and turnovers. There’s a lot to learn from a game like this, and I’m anxious to see how our team can turn around from this setback. I think the most important thing for us to take from today’s game is holding our composure, and continuing to be positive on the field when things don’t go our way.”
Unionville 13, Conestoga 9
Unionville 8 5 – 13
Conestoga 4 5 – 9
Unionville goals – Anna Brown 7, Passarello 2, Glackin 2, Malloy, Dietrich.
Conestoga goals: Clark 4, Bucher, DeVuono, Galica 2, Hewitt.
Goalie saves: UN – M. Robitzer 12; CO – Lepore 6.
