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EAST ROCKHILL – The Garnet Valley girls lacrosse team made sure a lengthy delay as thunderstorms rolled through the area Wednesday night did not dampen its spirit.
“Honestly, I feel like it really helped us,” Jaguars junior midfielder Sammy Wood said. “Just so pumped and just having so much fun and this team, we really do have so much fun. And when we were able to have that energy in there we really just carried it over to the game.”
Lightning halted play between 10th-seeded Garnet Valley and host No. 8 Pennridge at 9:49 in the District 1-3A seventh-place game’s second quarter with the Jaguars holding a 3-2 edge. It took just 40 seconds after play resumed for Wood to extend the margin while Jenny Green found the back of the net 22 seconds after that.
Wood struck twice more, capping a four-goal burst that quickly extended the Jaguars’ advantage to five.
“I think we found that the 1v1s, especially with the rain and the drives, that’s what was going to work and we really executed on that,” Wood said. “We started to run on our plays that really lets us enforce that and that really ended up working and we kind of just stuck with it.”
The Rams were within three at halftime and cut the margin to 9-6 in the third after an Ava Fantaskey tally. But Garnet Valley poured in another four goals to push its lead to 13-6 and went on to secure the district’s final PIAA tournament berth with a 17-8 victory at Helman Field.
“I definitely think the rain delay did not help us,” Pennridge coach Karen Feher said. “I mean we were psyched, we were ready, we had our plan and I think it (was) just two hours is a long time to sit and come back and stay focused for a game after a very long season.”
Wood finished with a game-high seven goals, the James Madison verbal commit scoring three times in both the second and third quarters as the Jaguars bounced back from a 11-10 loss to Upper Dublin in the opening round of playbacks last Thursday to return to states after a one-year absence.
“It was a tough loss and we knew we had to come out today because this is really what we wanted,” Wood said. “And I think all season we knew this year was going to be our revenge tour – our actual motto this year is ‘Unfinished Business.’ I think we knew we had work to do after last year and I’m just so proud of this team for everything that we have given this year.”
Mia Raucci added five goals – three coming in the opening quarter – with Taylor Halloran scoring three times for the Jaguars, who face District 1 champion Radnor in the PIAA first round Tuesday. It is the Central League teams’ third meeting in 2024, Radnor winning the previous two – 11-5 in the regular season then 13-8 in the district quarterfinals.
Pennridge, meanwhile, comes up a win shy of the program’s first-ever state appearance in Feher’s 10th and final season as head coach.
“I’m just so proud,” Feher said. “I said to them after the game, you know four years ago we didn’t make playoffs, last three years we made playoffs and just to make it this far, to represent the Suburban (One) League, I’m so proud of them.
“And yes it’s not the end of my storybook ending for a coaching career but for them it’s just the beginning as well too.”
The Rams, who finished 14-8, were co-champions of the SOL National Conference with Pennsbury and advanced to the district quarters after falling in the second round the past two years.
“This team has made history,” Pennridge senior Kendall Posey said. “This is the farthest we’ve gone ever, the conference title on top of making the third round, all together it’s something to be proud of. For it to be our coach’s last season too I’m really proud of her for coaching a team and this group of seniors and everybody all together that can really work well together.”
Fantaskey paced Pennridge with three goals while senior Posey scored her 100th career goal with a strike at 3:44 in the second quarter that pulled the Rams within 8-4.
“It was my season-long goal to get 100 goals and 100 assists and I’m really happy that I did it, I can go out on a high note since I’m not going to play (in college),” said Posey, who collected her 200th career point in a win over Council Rock North May 3. “And it feels really good, just being happy with myself and I have my team to thank for that.”
Fantaskey scored with 1:44 left in the half to have Pennridge down 8-5 at the break. Wood’s fourth goal put Garnet Valley ahead 9-5 at 9:56 but 20 seconds later Fantaskey had the Rams back within three.
But the Jaguars collected the quarter’s final four goals, starting with a strike from Raucci at 7:57 then Green finding the back of the net at 7:17. Wood scored the next two, the second goal at 1:23 putting GV up seven.
“Our offense just has so many great players and they really cleared the lanes for me and just let me kind of do my thing,” Wood said. “And I give a lot of credit to them because they’re the ones that clear those drives.”
A Kate Unzicker tally at 11:42 made it 13-7 before Garnet Valley got goals from Raucci then Wood to stretch its lead to eight with 10:34 left.
Cayla Wurz scored for the Rams at 5:16 before Halloran collected the game’s last two goals.
In the first quarter, a Leah Verespy strike had Pennridge level 1-1 at 8:19 before Raucci posted the next two goals – scoring at 2:41 after getting off a shot falling in a crowd then making it 3-1 at 20.3 seconds.
Fantaskey converted on an eight-meter shot to get the Rams within 3-2 at 10:06 in the second quarter but lightning stopped the game at 9:49. With steady rain still falling as the contest restarted, Garnet Valley grabbed control with its four-goal run, the last two from Wood to have the Jaguars up 7-2 at 6:25.
“We just had our momentum going so once the lightning delay we kind of were bummed out I think,” Posey said. “If we kept playing it would’ve been closer but can really never know. We fell flat in those first few minutes.”
Garnet Valley 17, Pennridge 8
Garnet Valley 3 5 5 4 – 17
Pennridge 1 4 1 2 – 8
Garnet Valley: Sammy Wood 7; Mia Raucci 5; Taylor Halloran 3; Jenny Green 2.
Pennridge: Ava Fantaskey 3; Kendall Posey; Madigan Posey; Kate Unzicker; Leah Verespy; Cayla Wurz.
