UWCHLAN >> Two games into her high school career, Livi Lawton never thought she would be the one called upon to provide scoring help for Downingtown East.
That always seems to be a tall task on any roster with a player as talented as Tori Barretta on it, more so for a freshman like Lawton.
With Springfield-Montco watching Barretta’s every move, that left the lane open for Lawton to capitalize on the opportunity. She kept her composure throughout, playing beyond her age and inexperience.
“I just try to come out confident and strong every time,” Lawton said. “Every day I’m working on scoring goals with the upperclassman and it’s paying off. I never thought I would have success so early.”
Lawton scored two of the game’s first three goals and sparked a dominant first half for Downingtown East in a 14-4 nonleague victory over Springfield-Montco on the new turf field at Downingtown East Tuesday afternoon.
As the Spartans were trying to contain Barretta, Lawton had two goals and two assists in the first 21 minutes to assist the Cougars (1-1) first win of the season. Barretta led East with five goals on the afternoon, but showed immense appreciation for her new teammate.
“Getting an early lead in any game is important and Livi really helped us get on a roll,” Barretta said. “It’s great to work as a team and get everyone comfortable. Today, we were able to catch, throw and shoot. We did a little bit of everything today.”
Assisting Lawton with the attack was Olivia Miller, who scored two goals of her own in the first half. The Cougars scored seven unanswered goals en route to a 10-2 halftime lead and not leaving the eventual outcome in doubt.
“For me, it was great to come out strong and help the team out,” Miller said. “I wanted to pick the team up and was able to do that.”
Miller was able to extend East’s lead by winning the draw and maintaining possession for the Cougars, making a Springfield comeback attempt harder to attempt.
“As soon as you come off the draw with a goal, that just gets everyone fired up,” Miller said. “Once you get the ball rolling from that point, it doesn’t stop from there.”
Barretta fed off that momentum off a pass from Lawton to put East up 6-2 with 8:01 left in the first half. She followed her first goal with three straight goals for the Cougars to give her four by halftime. Her fifth in final goal put East up 13-3 with 12:08 to play.
Barretta has 10 goals in two games to start the year after finishing with five in a season opening loss to Episcopal last Thursday.
“It’s a great feeling to start the year with that many goals,” said Barretta with a smile. “I really couldn’t have done it without my teammates.”
Lawton has been one of the teammates that has helped Barretta find her shot in the early portion of the season. In turn, East is on the winning end of a game for the first time this year.
For the Cougars, the win could be the first of many as they enter this season with high expectations once again. In the meantime, they are enjoying playing games in their own backyard instead of traveling down Route 113 to play home games.
“It’s real nice we have our own turf now,” Lawton said. “We saw today it’s a home advantage for us and we’re ready to play more games here.”
Downingtown East 14, Springfield-Montco 4
SF-Montco 2 2 – 4
D-East 10 4 – 14
Springfield-Montco goals: Chandler 2, Walsh, Giordano.
Downingtown East goals: Barretta 5, Lawton 2, Miller 2, Hunter, Wilcox, Person, Flynn, H. Wurzel.
Goalie saves: Leis (SM) 5, Robinson (DE) 4.
