UPPER DUBLIN – Last season, the Upper Dublin girls lacrosse team came up just short against Upper Moreland.
Monday afternoon, locked in another tight battle with the Golden Bears, the Cardinals made sure there would be a different outcome this time.
“The last timeout we had our senior Paige (Dinkel), stopped us and was like we were in the same position last year but we’re not going to have the same result,” UD junior Anna DiMartile said. “And that kind of picked everybody up and we gave it all ‘til the end and it was pretty special.”
In essentially an elimination game in the race for the SOL American Conference title, DiMartile broke a 5-5 tie with 6:33 remaining in the fourth quarter while Dinkel scored twice in the 63-second span to extended Upper Dublin’s late lead to three and the Cardinals held on to claim an 8-6 victory over visiting Upper Moreland.
“It was their poise in the end of the game and not giving the ball up and just believing,” UD coach Dee Cross said. “And we challenged them at the timeout, ‘Do you believe you can do this?’ And Paige stepped up as a senior and said something, it resonated with the girls and they got fired up.”
Anna DiMartile and Bridget DiMartile both had three goals for the Cardinals (15-2, 9-1 conference), who came into Monday tied for first in the American with both Springfield (Montco) and Upper Moreland. Springfield’s 17-10 win over Abington means the Cardinals and Spartans split the title if both earn victories Wednesday, UD visiting Cheltenham at 3:30 p.m. with Springfield at Wissahickon at 7.
Upper Dublin, Upper Moreland and Springfield all earned a share of the conference title in 2023, the Cardinals’ lone SOL American loss coming to UM in overtime 10-9 May 8.
“We just have to keep our composure against Cheltenham, obviously secure that win,” said Anna DiMartile, who has verbally committed to Florida. “Again, this team has worked so hard and I think we do deserve this conference title.
“And, it would be pretty special to do it again especially for our seniors who have been with us through it all and they’ve put so much time and effort into the team and just everyone, I think it would be pretty amazing.”
Upper Moreland (13-3, 8-2), which had a four-game win streak snapped, still could claim a piece of the SOL American crown but needs a win at home against William Tennent 3:30 p.m. Wednesday along with losses by both UD and Springfield. The Bears finish their regular season at Central Bucks East for a non-conference contest 5 p.m. Thursday.
“This one hurts,” Upper Moreland coach Kim Frantz said. “This one had a lot more at stake to it than just a win or a loss and they know that. And so this one’s tough and we’re going to have to take the time, I mean we play William Tennent on Wednesday so hopefully we’ll bounce back during that game and then CB East, that’ll be a challenge so that’ll be good.”
Upper Dublin, third in the District 1-3A rankings, trailed 5-3 after Willow Taylor converted on an eight-meter shot at 5:01 in the second quarter but did not allow another goal until Olivia Meakim scored with 1:30 left in regulation.
The six goals by Upper Moreland, first in the 2A rankings, were a season low.
“I guess we kind of just figured out what they were going to do,” UD senior goalkeeper Erin Darcy said. “And then we started talking a lot more which really helped us and on transitions we figured everything out.”
Darcy, who was a defender before switching to goalie this year, finished with six saves.
“I just knew I had to step back cause I knew their shots would be powerful and scary, so just had to do my best,” Darcy said.
Junior Abigail O’Meara aided the UD defensive effort by helping to slow down Annalise Messina – the junior verbally committed to Rutgers paced Upper Moreland with three goals but her final tally came at 8:18 in the second quarter.
“I didn’t want to face guard cause our defense isn’t built for that right now and we just told Ab to step up, really put pressure on and she did,” Cross said. “And she took that on as a challenge and then Annalise has that nice roll to goal and the other girls knew when to slide and that made a difference too.”
Bridget DiMartile scored with just three seconds left in the second quarter, pulling the Cardinals to within 5-4 at halftime. The UD freshman then collected the only goal of the third quarter, cutting through the defense to strike at 9:15 to knot the game 5-5.
After a charging call gave UD the ball at 7:12 in the fourth, the Cardinals used a timeout to settle things down and shortly after Anna DiMartile tallied the go-ahead goal, scoring off an Ava Shohen assist at 6:33.
“We called a timeout because we just were frantic and it seemed like we were frantic the all game but that’s credit to Upper Moreland,” Cross said. “The girls knew this was a big game, we just weren’t settling down. But they kept putting the pressure on, they play an aggressive zone which we knew they would.
“And I think the key was after the timeout they just worked the ball around, we pulled it out so it looked like we were kind of holding it and that allowed us to get some goals down the middle.”
Dinkel proceeded to push Upper Dublin’s lead to 8-5 with goals at 4:08 then 3:05, both assisted by Shohen.
Meakim came around the net to score her second of the afternoon with 90 seconds left to end Upper Dublin’s 5-0 run but Upper Moreland could not get any closer.
“It was basically a back-and-forth game, it was three minutes that we kind of fell apart and that three minutes ended up killing us,” Frantz said. “And I’m super proud of our girls, one of our defenders is home sick and so I’m really proud that we filled in, they played amazing on defense and so I can’t complain about that, which is great.”
In the first quarter, Upper Dublin led 2-0 before back-to-back Messina goals in a span of 11 seconds tied the game at 4:27. Meakim puts the Bears up 3-2 at 2:13 with the Golden Bears continuing their run into the second quarter, Messina collecting her hat trick at 8:18 to make it 4-2.
“I think we connected on the draws very well in that time period,” Frantz said. “We were winning a lot of the draw and I think we were just connecting, our passing was really connected.”
Bridget DiMartile’s tally at 7:59 had UD within 4-3 before Taylor struck on an eight-meter to put Upper Moreland back up two at 5:01.
Upper Dublin 8, Upper Moreland 6
Upper Moreland 3 2 0 1 — 6
Upper Dublin 2 2 1 3 — 8
Goals: Upper Moreland-Annalise Messina 3, Olivia Meakim 2, Willow Taylor; Upper Dublin-Anna DiMartile 3, Bridget DiMartile 3, Paige Dinkel 2.
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