Top seed Harriton advances to District 1-3A semis, sends Owen J. Roberts to playbacks
BRYN MAWR >> Owen J. Roberts trailed by only a goal after a wild first half of Saturday morning’s District 1-3A girls lacrosse quarterfinal. But nothing much went right for the Wildcats after that.
The eighth-seeded Wildcats were relegated to a must-win playback game after a 16-11 loss at top-seeded Harriton.
Katelin Williams and Allison Schwab each scored four times for the Rams (19-1), who clinched a spot in the PIAA Class 3A Tournament. Hannah Delahaye scored three for the eighth-seeded Wildcats (15-4), who need to win on Tuesday when they host West Chester Rustin in a 7 p.m. match.
Roberts was outscored 7-3 in the second half while playing without senior co-captain Eloise Gebert, who drew two yellow cards.
“We lost one of our top players early in the second half,” said OJR coach David Schlesinger. “She’s a vital person on the draw and our second-leading scorer. That was a huge loss.”
The Wildcats came up with just one of the 11 draws in the second half, and Sophia Murray scored 18 seconds after her team won that face-off. But that only brought them back to within 14-10. Harriton countered with goals by Williams and Schwab to wrap up the win.
“They’re a very talented team,” said Schlesinger. “We needed to keep it tighter. We lost a little composure after the second card. I like the way we got our composure back and battled to the final horn.”
Williams, who helped the Rams take an early 4-1 advantage, was excited and tired afterwards.
“I haven’t been in states once in my entire career,” said the Harriton senior attack, an All-Central League first-team selection. “The other team did a great job. It was a hard game. We’re all exhausted.”
Harriton, which knocked off defending state champion Unionville 20-11 on Thursday, scored four in a row – the last two by Williams – for a 4-1 advantage. Then the Wildcats called a time out and answered with five consecutive goals over the next five minutes to take their largest lead of the match, 6-4.
But the Rams scored three late in the first half to regain the upper hand and Schwab, another league first-team pick, scored three minutes into the second half for a 10-8 margin. Then after Gracyn Smith scored with her team a player up following a Harriton yellow card, the Rams took control with four scores in a row.
“It started to make us a little frazzled,” Williams said concerning the earlier OJR run. “We haven’t been down too many times this season. But our team came together and started to build up momentum. We have some really good leaders on our team.”
Besides dominating the draws in the second half, the Rams also did a good job of running time off the clock over the last 10 minutes, partially by necessity.
“The other team got tired … we got tired,” Williams added.
Smith, Murray and Maddi Koury each scored two for Roberts and Gebert and Emily Himmelreich chipped in a goal apiece. Wildcat goalkeeper Cayden Jarvis kept her team in the game with 12 saves.
“We made a bunch of defensive mistakes early,” said Schlesinger. “We were ball-watching too much. I think we corrected that. Our goalkeeper played very well. We moved the ball well. We battled until the very end.”
Lucy Dwyer contributed three goals and two assists for Harriton, which advances to a 4 p.m. semifinal on Tuesday against Downingtown West, a 17-6 winner over Rustin. The Wildcats will clinch one of the district’s six state berths with a win against Rustin or their season will end with a loss.
“We’re a very talented team,” Schlesinger added. “And our season moves on.”
