Daily Times-Area Field Hockey roundup: Swart scores twice, keeps goal alive

RADNOR >> Sam Swart has set a rather ambitious goal for her senior season at Archbishop Carroll. The All-Delco midfielder wants to score a goal in every game.
Setting a goal-per-game objective in lacrosse, the primary sport of the three she plays at Carroll and one of two she will play in college at Syracuse, is more easily attainable. Lacrosse games tend to be rather high scoring, so the odds of achieving that goal would be in Swart’s favor.
Field hockey, though, is a different matter. Goals can be hard to come by so reaching that objective will take some doing.
“I don’t want to leave the field without scoring a goal,” Swart said. “I get mad at myself when I don’t score a goal.”
Well, she’s off to a good start.
Swart is 5-for-5 in her quest to score in every game after Monday’s two-goal performance, which included the winner, in Carroll’s 4-3 nonleague victory over Agnes Irwin at Phelps Field.
“My job is to score,” Swart said. “That’s what I’m going to continue to do.”
Not just at Carroll, but at Syracuse, too. Swart plans to play both field hockey and lacrosse for the Orange, which is unusual at that level. Most athletes who play both pick one when they get to college, but not Swart.
“I don’t want to stop playing field hockey,” she said. “I like it too much. I can’t imagine my life without field hockey. It’s been a part of me forever so I can’t stop. I talked to the coaches up there and they’re fine with it. We worked it out where I’ll play both.”
Swart, who also plays basketball for the Patriots, committed to Syracuse in the eighth grade. She fell in love with the school while watching Carmelo Anthony lead the Orange to the national title in 2003. Initially, she wanted to play basketball, but that changed as she got older.
“I realized I wouldn’t be able to play basketball,” said Swart, who will graduate with 12 varsity letters, four each in field hockey, basketball and lacrosse, “so I decided to focus on lacrosse and field hockey.”
Swart broke a 1-1 tie with 4:05 left in the first half and then tallied the winner with 16:05 to play in the game off a scrum following a corner. It was her sixth and seventh goals of the season.
“We work really well together,” Swart said of her teammates. “I could not have done it without them. It wasn’t just me by myself, it was everybody.”
Meg Foster had the other two goals for the Patriots (3-2), while Hannah Bateman filled in nicely at center-mid for Maddie Sutter, who was out with an injury.
“Our center-back, Maggie Pinas, was out, too, but the other players fill in nicely,” said Christina Elisio, in her first year as the head coach at Carroll. “We’re deep.”
The Patriots needed that depth to get past an Agnes Irwin team also shorthanded. The Owls (2-2) were without all-time leading scorer Julianna Tornetta.
“She’ll recover quickly,” AIS coach Alison Monzo said. “It’s just normal wear-and-tear. Her body is just feeling it a little bit. She just needs a break. She’ll be out this week.”
Jax Van der Veen filled in quite nicely for Tornetta. The Georgetown-bound senior scored all three goals for Agnes Irwin, the last coming with 39 seconds left to make things interesting.
“Jax came up huge,” Monzo said. “She’s been a tremendous leader this season. She’s really come through and come into her own, commanding the field, distributing to her teammates, finding the right passing lanes, being a playmaker, like she’s always been. She has that commanding presence that we need in the midfield.”
Agnes Irwin dominated play early, but could not cash in and that eventually proved costly. The Owls kept the ball in the Carroll end for much of the first 12 minutes, but came up empty because of a Carroll defense that was led by sophomore Keri Daly and freshman Carly Bateman.
The Patriots stymied the Owls at every turn and that eventually paid off on offense when Foster scored the first of her two goals off an assist from Hannah Bateman with 12:18 left in the first half. Van der Veen got the equalizer nearly six minutes later.
Swart broke the tie with her first goal and Foster scored with no time left off a penalty corner to give the Patriots a 3-1 lead at the break.
After Van der Veen cut the deficit to one with her second goal of the game, Swart struck again to push Carroll’s lead back to two goals.
“This was a good win for us, especially after (losing to Episcopal Academy) last Friday,” Elisio said. “We came back strong today.”
In other nonleague action:
Upper Darby 2, Interboro 1 >> Jonaye Osley collected a goal and assist to help the Royals rally from a 1-0 halftime deficit for their first win of the season.
Maria Ngam also scored for Upper Darby, while goalies Veronica Hudson and Mallory Perry combined to make six saves.
Brianna Mathis scored for Interboro with an assist from Molly Dowling. Ameila Wellmon and Moriah Marr teamed up to make 10 saves for the Bucs.
Bishop Shanahan 6, Bonner & Prendergast 2 >> All-Delco Riley Dolan scored on a penalty stroke and Kerri Quinn converted a pass from Carly Brosious for the second goal. Julia Cardan stopped eight shots in goal.
Strath Haven 1, Oxford 0 >> Elizabeth Labows and freshman Jillian Brennan anchored a strong defense in front of goalies Gillian Gunn (six saves) and Kay Walker (12 saves).
Ashley Hassell put home a pass from Gale Henderson for the winner 10 minutes into the second half.