Owen J. Roberts edges Downingtown East 15-10 to secure state spot

BUCKTOWN >> The Owen J. Roberts girls lacrosse team was coming off its first loss of the season and could not afford another one in Tuesday night’s District 1-3A playback game. And with either a trip to states or the end of the season hanging in the balance, the Wildcats recovered from a slow start and earned a PIAA tournament berth with a 15-10 win over Downingtown East at Wildcat Field North.

Gabbi Koury scored six and Alexa Vogelman five for the fourth-seeded Wildcats (18-1), who trailed 4-2 after six minutes, but scored the last seven goals of the first half for an 11-5 advantage. Caroline Brennan led the ninth-seeded Cougars (16-6) with four goals and an assist.

OJR will host Great Valley, a 9-6 winner over Downingtown West, for fifth place on Thursday.

“After the last game, when we went down, we were ready to come back. We didn’t want the same outcome,” sophomore midfielder Koury said, referring to Saturday’s 8-4 quarterfinal loss to Unionville. “We just clicked. We had less focus on the scoreboard.”

“We learned our lesson,” added Wildcat sophomore defender Colby Wasson. “We learned to keep our heads up, even when we were down on the scoreboard.”

Hazel Gardner opened the scoring for East just 56 seconds into the contest and a goal by Brennan gave the Cougars their 4-2 lead. Then East took its last lead of the night at 5-4 on a score by Sofia Fanelli with 9:47 left in the half.

But Koury tied the score 26 seconds later and Ava Clemson put the Wildcats on top for the first time at 6-5 with 3:41 to go until the halftime break, setting off a run of six goals in under four minutes. Clemson scored off an assist from Koury 23 seconds into the second half to complete an overall eight-goal run for a 12-5 advantage.

“At first we came out and we were down,” said Wasson. “We started to work together and talk. We really started to come together.”

East countered with goals by Fanelli and Brennan to close to within 12-7 with 21:30 to go, but two scores by Vogelman wrapped around another by Koury clinched the win and a state spot for the fifth straight season.

“Our teams the past couple of years were really talented,” said Koury. “When districts didn’t work out, we were determined to come back and make states.”

“We had big shoes to fill,”said Wasson. “We had three goals … to win the PAC, win districts and win states.”

Gardner, Fanelli and Nickie Prendergast each scored two and goalkeeper Jordan Higgins made nine saves for the Cougars, who were coming off a 17-5 setback versus top seed Conestoga.

“I think what really hurt us tonight was the draws,” said East coach Kelli Joran. “Their possessions transferred to a lot of goals. It just came down to not having enough possessions.”

“Ball control. That was the biggest thing,” said Roberts coach David Schlesinger, whose team wound up with a 17-10 advantage in draws for the night after a slow start in that category. “And good shooting. We started to figure out their goalie.”

Maggie Kilgallon and Clemson each scored twice for OJR, Koury and Gracyn Smith each had two assists and goalkeeper Korigan Sweeney made six saves.

The Wildcats had run through their 15-game Pioneer Athletic Conference schedule undefeated for their sixth straight title, winning all but one match by at least 10 goals.
But that would have gone all for naught without a win on Tuesday.

“We needed to be challenged,” said Schlesinger. “”We didn’t react well to the challenge against Unionville. We needed to respond. They’re a very close knit group and they didn’t want the season to end. Not only for themselves, but for the seniors. They played with confidence.”

OJR will begin state play next Tuesday against either the District 1 or District 12 champion. Meanwhile, East has good reason to look forward to next season.

“We can’t say enough good things about the girls we had this year on the team,” said Joran. “It hurts, but we accomplished a lot this year. We know we have a bright future ahead.”