Downingtown East survives CB West late storm; advances in Districts

Downingtown >> Facing a dangerous Central Bucks West squad that had a reputation for fast finishes, host Downingtown East survived a late CB West comeback to eke out an exciting 10-9 win in the second round of the PIAA 3A District 1 girls lacrosse playoffs Thursday at DiSerafino Stadium.

The seventh-seeded Cougars held an 8-4 halftime lead and a 9-5 advantage with 18:22 to play. But the visiting Bucks (a No. 10 seed) stormed back to make it a one-goal game with 9:55 left.

“The big thing about CB West is, they’re tough on the circle, and they move really fast around the attack, they’re really tough down on that end,” said D-East head coach Christa Somits. “That’s why we ended up trying to put more defenders down there trying to slow down their fast break, which helped us a little bit throughout the game.”

CB West head coach Becky Cartee-Haring, who chatted amiably with Somits for about 5-10 minutes after the game, said, “We played Downingtown East in our first game of the season and we knew it was probably the toughest team on our schedule, and when we won that game [by two goals] it really set the tone for the rest of our season. We knew we could hang with the best.”

The visiting Bucks hung with D-East for the first seven minutes of Thursday’s game, battling the hosts to a 3-3 draw.

Cougar senior Jess Myers put the hosts ahead 4-3 with a goal 14:08 before halftime; then a couple of minutes after a great save by D-East junior goalie Ava Irwin, D-East freshman Nicky Prendergast scored from 8 meters to give the Cougars a 5-3 lead.

With five minutes to go before halftime, D-East sophomore Caroline Brennan scored twice within 21 seconds to give the hosts a 7-3 lead. Olivia Fanelli added a goal 2:11 before the half ended to make it 8-4.

By halftime, CB West junior goalie Lauren Ring had six saves (she finished with nine). Irwin did not have as many (she finished with six) but for the junior Cougar it was an example of quality over quantity.

“Each one of Ava’s saves was huge for us tonight,” said Somits. “Every one of them came at a critical point of the game where we got the ball back, and ended up scoring.”

Just 18 seconds into the second half, CB West senior Casey Reichwein, who has committed to University of Michigan for field hockey, scored to make it 8-5.

Following a couple of tough saves, one from each team’s goalie, D-East senior Livi Lawton scored after a long run to put the hosts ahead 9-5 with 18:22 left.

CB West began to storm back. Buck junior Emma Haring (a Towson commit) scored, then four minutes later Reichwein tallied in front of the goal to make it 9-7 with 13:04 left. Another Reichwein tally with 9:55 left made it 9-8.

D-East junior Lauren Carey gave the hosts some breathing room when she scored with 6:43 left, on an assist from sophomore Hazel Gardner. It was the only Cougars’ only goal in the last minutes of play.

“Lauren’s goal was huge for us,” said Somits. “She’s normally a low defender for us but with [a Cougar attackman] being carded out of the game in the second half, we moved Lauren up to attack. She’s one of our strongest defenders, so she really stepped up big for us tonight.”

Carey smilingly said, “I haven’t really been practicing on offense, but Coach [Somits] told me to go down [to attack], and I was open, and I shot, hoping it would go in and it did.”

Irwin laughed and said, “When I saw the ball go in, I was in shock because Lauren comes from defense and I know that’s really hard to transition from to offense midway through a game. Lauren did a really great job, and it was an amazing shot. She knew that the goalie was left handed, so she knew where to shoot and we practiced that shot yesterday.”

With three minutes to go, D-East controlled the ball with a sharp passing attack, but committed a turnover with 58.4 seconds left. CB West moved downfield, and eventually Reichwein scored her fifth goal of the game with 15.1 seconds left.

CB West won the subsequent draw control, but failed to score and D-East had its 10-9 win.

For the Cougars, Myers, Brennan and Lawton each scored two goals, and Lawton won four draw controls.

“I was so happy when the final buzzer sounded,” said Irwin. “We put in a hard week of practice, and we came out with a win and it’s just amazing.”

While D-East advances to the third round of the District 1 tournament Saturday to play the winner of Thursday’s Garnet Valley-North Penn matchup, the season is over for a Central Bucks West team that gave its fans many exciting finishes this spring.

“Our players thought coming from behind was so much fun this season,” said a smiling Carlee-Haring. “We’ve come back from games where we were five goals down – but we weren’t behind as much lately. Our players never get nervous [behind] – they’re hustlers with great heart, and I’m just so proud of what they’ve done this season.

“We only had five returning players this spring who saw any varsity action last year. We are a young team that has gelled quickly. It’s been an amazing ride – we have little or no ego on our team.

“Casey [Reichwein] has been a great leader for us – she dominates but she doesn’t act like she dominates (smiles). She’s an amazing player and we’ll miss her. Another important senior was defender Izzy Treon, who didn’t start playing lacrosse until ninth grade, never saw a minute of varsity until this year, and led us in caused turnovers this season. [Senior] Kristen Rice was one of our captains, and a couple of other seniors who didn’t start playing lacrosse until ninth grade but helped to give us our heart and soul were Cassidy McGarry and Darcy Concannon. It’s been an amazing group.”