Upper Merion’s Julianna Callison, Ashley Evitts connect for game-winner on Senior Night

UPPER MERION >> Ashley Evitts didn’t see it, but when she heard her teammates and the crowd she knew what happened.

The Upper Merion senior gained possession after the opening faceoff of overtime against Pope John Paul II Thursday night and raced down the right sideline. She went to the ground after sending a pass to classmate Julianna Callison in the middle of the field. Before Evitts could turn her head to the net, the Vikings were swarming her to celebrate.

Callison scored the game-winning goal just 14 seconds into the extra session to lift Upper Merion to a 12-11 Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division win over the Golden Panthers on Senior Night at Upper Merion Area High School.

“(Evitts) passed it to me and I don’t even think I looked at the goal,” Callison said. “I just shot it. I don’t even remember seeing it go in.”

“A big thing for our team is going to goal when the defense isn’t ready,” Evitts said. “Just taking advantage of that was one of our key things.”

Evitts finished the game with five goals and two assists. Two of her goals were taken straight to the net after gaining possession from a faceoff. It looked like that was going to happen again in overtime, but she sent the ball to Callison when she got the defense’s attention.

Upper Merion (9-7, 8-5 PAC, 8-4 PAC Frontier) needed late-game heroics just to send it to overtime. After falling behind, 11-10, with 7:49 left in regulation, the Vikings had to make two big defensive stops to get the ball back.

The first stop came with 2:17 left. Callison was defending and took a shot right into her stomach. It was called a dangerous shot and Upper Merion got possession, but PJP goalie Maykayla Elison made one of her many big saves at the other end with 1:49 remaining.

The Golden Panthers (8-8, 7-6 PAC, 6-4 PAC Frontier) controlled the ball for the next 1:14, before getting trapped in an offensive corner and called timeout with 33.5 seconds left. During the break, Upper Merion coach Angie Yanocha decided to put four defenders on the ball, which forced a false start and gave the Vikings the ball.

“When they called the timeout our coach decided,” Evitts said. “She was like, ‘I’ve never done this before, but we’re going to put four girls on the ball to pressure.’ I think that worked and maybe she’ll do it again.”

“We have had a tough time being on the same page,” Callison admitted, “but that was the perfect example of our team all being on the same page. It was really great, obviously, because we scored off of it.”

Senior Brooke Olsen raced the ball up the field and found classmate Audrey Schuebel for the equalizer with 11.3 seconds remaining in regulation.

The PAC Frontier rivals played a tight game throughout. Upper Merion never led by more than one goal and Pope John Paul II’s advantage peaked at two goals, 8-6, early in the second half.

Callison, who finished with four goals, gave the Vikings a 6-5 halftime lead with just 10.3 seconds before intermission. The Golden Panthers responded with three goals to start the second half to take their 8-6 lead.

Jill Cobaugh led PJP with three goals while Ava Zepp, Camryn Grimley and Sarah Mink each added two. Molly Bachman scored what looked to be the game-winner to put her side ahead, 11-10, with 7:49 to go.

GIVING BACK

Prior to the game, Callison put together a collection to donate lacrosse equipment, athleisure wear and shoes to Africa Sticks, a non-profit organization that caters to helping kids in Africa escape poverty through sports, specifically lacrosse.

“Lacrosse is something I’ve played since fifth grade,” Callison said. “I’m going to college to play lacrosse. I wanted to share my love for lacrosse around the world. I brought my community together. I emailed all the teams in Upper Merion for lacrosse. I reached out to the PJP coach and they also brought stuff. I feel like the community came together and helped me achieve that. I want to share my love and my community’s love for lacrosse and push that out and see what that can do. Not even in the USA, but anywhere. I just wanted to be able to translate that somewhere else. I feel like it really showed because I know a lot of people came and dropped stuff off. PJP helped out, which is amazing because we’re rival teams, this was a really high-stakes game, it was our Senior Night and they still pulled through and helped me achieve my goal.”

Upper Merion 12, Pope John Paul II 11

Pope John Paul II 5 6 0 – 11

Upper Merion 6 5 1 – 12

Goals: PJP: Jill Cobaugh 3, Ava Zepp 2, Camryn Grimley 2, Becky Fanelli, Sarah Mink 2, Molly Bachman. UM: Olivia Smith, Julianna Callison 4, Ashley Evitts 5, Sam Walmsley, Audrey Schuebel. 

Assists: PJP: Elena Colliluori, Jill Cobaugh.  UM: Sam Walmsley 2, Ashley Evitts 2, Brooke Olsen 2, Riley Robinson

Saves: PJP: Maykayla Elison 7. UM: Anaya Onwubuariri 6.