Mountz saves the day as Carroll reaches final

MARPLE — Archbishop Carroll’s field hockey co-coaches Jackie DePetris and Kelly Dougherty pulled themselves together after their team survived 60 minutes of regulation time and 30 minutes of overtime tied with Bonner Prendergast in a Catholic League semifinal game at Cardinal O’Hara Monday night.

After the pair of scoreless overtime sessions, the Catholic League semifinal game would be decided by penalty strokes. Mountz turned away two of the five Bonner Prendie shooters who tried to get the better of her while one shot was ruled no goal because of a foul. Three of Carroll’s four players who took strokes found the back of the cage, putting the Pats in the Catholic League championship game against Cardinal O’Hara at Neumann University Thursday. Game time is 7:15 p.m.

“Kerri Mountz is just unbelievable,’ DePetris said. “We have so much faith in her. Kelli and I were so confident when it went to strokes because we knew we’d have Kerri out there.’

Mountz, who is also an excellent lacrosse player and is headed to Indiana University of Pennsylvania to play that sport and study nursing, wasn’t so sure she wanted to be the one who had to play such a big part in deciding the game.

“You saw me walking back and forth and just trying to put everything else out of my mind,’ said Mountz, who made five saves in regulation time and four in overtime

The first penalty stroke she saw — by Mary Anne Young seven minutes into overtime — sailed wide. The next one was the first in the tiebreaker, and this time Olivia Keenan put Bonner-Prendie ahead. Grace McClatchey couldn’t match that shot for Carroll, but Mountz knocked down Riley Dolan’s drive and Alysa Lemons scored for the Patriots.

Casey Rafferty fouled on her drive — which got by Mountz but didn’t count — and when Hannah Bateman’s shot was good, Carroll went ahead in the tiebreaker. Sierra Stretch put a drive by Mountz to get B-P even, but Courtney Brady’s blast low to the left side of the cage left Carroll one Mountz save from the chance to play for the title.

Mountz used her glove to knock down Young’s stroke, and the Carroll celebration began.

“I can’t explain the happiness I felt after making that save,’ said Mountz, who made a great save just before the end of the first overtime period. “Every day when we practice is like a game to me. I just want to be ready for situations like this.’

No practice includes having players going at full speed the way they did in Monday’s game.

“Our season has been a lot more than 100 minutes,’ Brady said. “You work that hard that you have to keep on going.

“When you get up there (for a penalty stroke) you just try to see the back of the net and try to get the ball there.’

Carroll found the back of the cage nine minutes into the game on a goal by Lemons, but Stretch answered 1:59 later. In the second half, it was Grace Midgety scoring for Carroll, assisted by McNulty with 6:55 to play, and Dolan finishing a penalty corner, assisted by Jess Campell, as Bonner Prendie got even 4:36 before the half ended.

In the first overtime, Young had a key defensive stop for the Pandas and Mountz denied Dolan on a good scoring effort. In the second overtime, Baldini turned away McNulty’s scoring bid and Mary Catherine Jones helped out defensively for Carroll. Alyssa Monahan of B-P and Sam Swart of Carroll were threats on the offensive end of the field and stoppers on defense throughout.

“We played hard as a team throughout both halves and in overtime,’ said Bonner-Prendie coach Joanne Dolan, who team finished with a 14-5 record.