Unionville tops Downingtown East to grab share of Ches-Mont title
EAST MARLBOROUGH >> To say that the Unionville girls’ lacrosse squad was loose heading into Thursday’s regular season league finale against Downingtown East would be an understatement.
“We enjoy being out on the field together every chance we get,” said Longhorns’ head coach Tara Brown. “We started our pregame with a dance-off for 15 minutes. It’s all about fun.”
And the atmosphere undoubtedly continued into the night as Unionville put together a dominant first half, and went on to thump the Cougars 18-8 to grab a share of the Ches-Mont crown with one-loss Bishop Shanahan.
“We were excited for this game and happy to end the regular season with a big ‘W,’” said sophomore Anna Brown, who paced the ’Horns in scoring with five goals, all in the first half.
“I was expecting it to be more competitive, but our team came out and played the best we could.”
With a 12-1 league mark (16-1 overall), Unionville moved up to fourth in the District 1 3A rankings. It is riding the wave of a seven-game winning streak, and after a non-league Friday tune-up with No. 3 Garnet Valley, the squad will head into the postseason. The team’s lone loss came on April 27th at Shanahan.
“The Bishop Shanahan loss was, honesty, the best thing for us,” Tara Brown acknowledged. “Afterwards, the captains said, ‘we don’t like this feeling so let’s go.’
“We always say that every game is a lesson. We learn something and try to apply it to the next game, and they’ve been doing that. We are playing very well as a unit right now.”
The Longhorns showed all of it during the first half while building a stunning 12-2 lead. The squad raced to a 4-0 lead less than 10 minutes in, forcing a timeout by Downingtown East (8-3, 13-4). At the midway point of the half Unionville was in command, 7-2, even though the Cougars had won seven of the first eight draws.
“I don’t have a whole lot to say about that,” said East head coach Kelli Joran. “It just didn’t translate into goals. It wasn’t our night.
“We were expecting a battle. It is what it is.”
Unionville then poured in five more goals in the final four minutes of the half. Lily Dietrich celebrated her birthday with two of her four goals on the day, and Anna Brown finished it off with a pair in the final 32.3 seconds. With Nickie Predergast and Caroline Brennan sharing duties in the circle, the Cougars wound up winning nine of 13 face offs, and yet were down by double digits.
“Credit to Downingtown East, they were getting the 50-50 draws,” Tara Brown said. “But our defense really gelled against Downingtown West on Tuesday (a 13-8 win) and it carried over to this game. Yes, we want to win the draw, but we were confident with our defense that we could stop them every time they got the draw.”
Senior goaltender Mattie Robitzer notched seven of her 10 saves in that first half for the Longhorns.
“And we don’t have just one girl who shines on defense,” said senior Riley Glackin. “They play as a unit and when they are communicating, they are pretty much unstoppable.”
Glackin scored three of her four goals in the second half and finished with a team-high four assists. The margin grew to 17-4 at one point, but East scored four of the final five goals in mop-up time.
“It’s so important to have those lessons to learn in the games that are tougher,” Glackin said. “This team is just so close both on and off the field. The team bonding has really been monumental for us, and it shows on the field.”
In all six different players scored at least one goal for Unionville, including three from Kenzie Malloy. Shannon Garvey chipped in with three assists. And the ’Horns notched goals on 18 of 20 shots on goal.
“Getting more patient with our opportunities is why we’ve grown in our shooting percentage,” Tara Brown explained.
“Our accuracy has definitely been improving this season,” Anna Brown added. “We’ve had some rough games but this one we were on target.”
Predergast, Brennan and Hazel Gardner each had two goals apiece for East.
“We’ve had so much fun this season,” Tara Brown said. “Just being together, getting to play and not being in quarantine – those are the important things. Everything else is a bonus.
“We are playing good lacrosse, but you can always get better.”
Unionville 18, Downingtown East 8
Downingtown East 2 6 — 8
Unionville 12 6 — 18
Downingtown East goals: Predergast 2, Brennan 2, Hewitt, Gardner 2, Zucchero.
Unionville goals: Brown 5, Dietrich 4, Glackin 4, Malloy 3, Passarello, DeLaney.
Goalie saves: Higgins (DE) 2; Robitzer (U) 10.
