Conestoga wakes up in time to sink Radnor, advance to semifinals

TREDYFFRIN >> Like an early morning jolt from a strong cup of coffee, the Conestoga girls’ lacrosse squad needed, and got, a wake-up call on Saturday morning.

The Pioneers stormed back from a shaky start to upend Radnor 14-10 at Teamer Field to capture a District 1 3A Quarterfinal triumph. It was an all-Central League battle, with a berth in the district semifinals at stake.

“I am so incredibly proud of the effort this team’s put in every single day,” said ’Stoga head coach Amy Orcutt. “This is such a competitive league and all of the coaches are my friends.

“We are on group chats together, so it’s never easy to beat a friend and a great opponent.”

Not coincidentally, the third-seeded Pioneers will face another Central League rival on Tuesday: No. 2 Garnet Valley, for the right to play for the district crown. Conestoga also secured itself a spot in the PIAA Tournament with the win.

“I told them if they take care of the little things, the big things are going to fall into place,” Orcutt said. “Getting ground balls at the right times, making (defensive) stops, getting loose balls, scoring goals when we needed it – all those little efforts made a difference today.”

It was an unusual 10 a.m. start time, and the Pioneers quickly fell behind 3-0. But ’Stoga never panicked, quickly got things turned around, and wound up outscoring the Red Raiders 14-7 the rest of the way. 

“We are good at not letting things get us down,” said Conestoga goalie San Centofante. “It didn’t worry me too much because I thought that we would come back.

“We’ve played even earlier than this, so that wasn’t an issue. But it was nice to have the home field advantage.”

With Centofante leading the way in the cage and sophomore midfielder Rachel Clark scoring all four of her goals in the second half, the Pioneers (16-3 overall) gradually pulled away in the second half from Radnor (15-5 overall), who pushed ’Stoga to the limit in the regular season before falling 9-8 back on April 2nd.

“We had a nice game plan and overall we played hard together as a team,” Orcutt said. “There were so many different contributors.” 

The Pioneers never trailed in the second half, but were eventually able to open a cushion in the final eight minutes by ending the match with three unanswered goals, turning an 11-10 nail-bitter into a relatively comfortable finish.

At 12-10, Centofante came up with a great save which led directly to Clark’s fourth goal with 3:41 to go. Jane Bailey then added an insurance goal about a minute later.

“(Centofante) came up really big today,” Orcutt said. “She held her ground, she was patient and aggressive when she needed to be.”

After being held scoreless in the first half, Clark poured in three of ’Stoga’s first four goals of the second half to set up the finish.

“I was being face-guarded in the first half. At halftime we kind of figured out how to get around the face-guard,” Clark said.

“We just went over some things she could do and when they took off the face-guard, we were able to get her the ball and it freed up some space,” Orcutt added.

The sixth seeded Red Raiders got off to a terrific start, scoring the first three goals in the opening five minutes of play. But the Pioneers came back forcefully by scoring five of the next six to take their first lead. And after four ties and three lead changes, ’Stoga took a 7-6 lead into the half when Sydney Sloan scored her third goal of the day with 4:38 on the clock.”

“Radnor came out hot and we were just a step behind,” Orcutt explained. “We definitely started slow, but once we got into our groove, we were able to play better team defense. “We talked about a timeout early, but I didn’t think we needed it. I wanted to give them one more chance to get it together, and they did it. They knew what they had to do.” 

Clark added: “This is so exciting. We are working so well right now. Our coaches were crying at the end.”

Conestoga 14, Radnor 10

Radnor 6 4 – 10

Conestoga 7 7 – 14

Radnor goals: May, Rigolizzo 4, Cox, Mueller 2, DiCarlo, Nelson.

Conestoga goals: J. Bailey 2, Clark 4, Bucher 2, Sloan 3, L. Bailey, Littlewood 2.  

Goalie saves: Proctor (R) 9, Centofante (C) 11.