Mount St. Joseph’s Donovan scores 100th career goal in win over Pennridge
FLOURTOWN >> Surrounded by her teammates after notching her 100th career goal, Kate Donovan provided a shining example of what Mount St. Joe’s strives to accomplish on the lacrosse field.
“Kate is a warrior, through and through,” said her coach, Becky Cartee-Haring. “She comes up with ground balls like you would never expect. She’s able to get draw controls when people are taller than her. She never stops. And she also can score. She is just an all-around, complete player and a leader on the team.”
Donovan poured in her fourth goal of this sunny Wednesday afternoon with 37 seconds left, bringing a thrilling climax to an impressive 14-8 Magic victory over visiting non-league foe Pennridge.
“It feels good. I wouldn’t be here without my team,” said a smiling Donovan, a captain for Mount. “Most of my goals are from assists so I wouldn’t be here without my teammates. It was so fun to celebrate with them.”
The victory lifted Mount’s record to 12-6, with the Magic – currently sixth in District 1-2A – closing out the regular season Thursday at Haverford. Pennridge closed out its regular season at 11-7, currently 15th in District 1-3A.
The Rams came out firing Wednesday, bolting to a 5-0 lead. Grace Rosica and Ava Fantaskey each scored twice and Leah Verespy added a tally to fuel the fast start on the turf at Mount.
But the contest swung in the Magic’s favor for good.
Mount evened things up by the half and outscored Pennridge 9-3 after the break.
Maggie Rezza scored six for the Magic, Donovan had four and six others contributed either a goal or an assist in an attack that kept connecting and finishing.
“Pennridge is a really good team but we had a great comeback,” said Donovan. “We worked really hard and we moved the ball on offense. Once we got in a groove, it was hard to stop us and our momentum. It’s good to get a nice win at home before the playoffs.”
Said Cartee-Haring: “We needed that. To get that comeback is really good for us going into the postseason.”
It was a week of milestones for the Magic – goalie Annie Shields made her 500th career save earlier this week.
“It’s been a great week for us,” Cartee-Haring said happily.
And the Magic wanna keep it going, this week and beyond.
“We’re really excited. We think we can do some big things,” Donovan said of the postseason.
Mount St. Joe’s 14, Pennridge 8
Pennridge 5 3 – 8
Mount 5 9 – 14
Pennridge goals-assists: Grace Rosica 3-1; Ava Fantaskey 4-1; Madigan Posey 1-0; Kate Unzicker 0-3; Taylor Burkett 0-1.
Mount goals-assists: Kiersten Pumilia 1-1; Kate Donovan 4-0; Maggie Rezza 6-0; Amelia Clair 1-0; Katie Westmoreland 1-1; Gabby Clair 1-0; Ava Rossi 0-1; Morgan Smith 0-1.
