PIAA Class 2A Girls Lacrosse: Re-focused O’Hara pushes past Southern Lehigh
EMMAUS — A five-goal lead had been whittled to two, and coach Jenny Duckenfield wanted to talk things over.
Cardinal O’Hara’s girls lacrosse team had, in the first 10 minutes of their PIAA Class 2A opener at Emmaus High School, handled Southern Lehigh. But three straight free-position goals from the District 11 champion Spartans were enough to force the O’Hara sideline to take a breath, on the scorching turf, and remember what qualities the Lions used to grow that lead in the first place.
“It was to refocus us,” midfielder Claire Natoli said. “You come in, we were looking a little frantic, so you come in, you gather yourself, you go back out, regain your momentum and push it.”
Push it, the Lions did, all the way to a 17-7 win and a spot in the state quarterfinals.
On balance, the first 17 minutes of the game, in which O’Hara padded out a 7-2 lead, looked more the norm than the ensuing five-minute blip. In that window, Southern Lehigh (18-3) scored three times, all on eight-meter shots, and won three straight draws, after O’Hara had controlled the game’s first seven.
So the Lions refocused, pitched a shutout the rest of the half and never looked seriously threatened the rest of the way.
“Just to kind of pick it up,” attacker Ellie Miller said. “We sometimes start slow, and the games we start slow, we tend to have a harder time keeping our heads up and keeping our confidence up. Our mindset was, 0-0, keep it going, play how we play.”
Part of that mindset was to exploit the matchup Miller had drawn low on the right side of the attack, taking anything she wanted against her defenders. Miller finished with five goals and three assists, including two straight markers to make it 7-2.
She added a goal with seven seconds left in the first half, then answered a Spartans goal to start the second by whipping a low, side-armed shot around her marker and in. She then set up Mia Scarduzio for her third goal to make it 13-6.
“I noticed she wasn’t pressuring out too far,” Miller said. “So any time she would take a step, I would tuck my shoulder and take her on.”
“I know when Ellie scores, I get excited,” Natoli said. “Especially when Ellie is scoring so much, I pull her in like, keep going. … She had a great game. She did great. And I think we all feed of each other’s energy, so when she’s having a great game, we all pick up on that.”
O’Hara got the better of the big matchup on both sides of the field. Southern Lehigh’s Reese MacIntosh entered with 101 goals on the season, the all-time leading scorer in program history. That meant Natoli, the junior who last week as named the Catholic League’s Most Outstanding Player, would shadow MacIntosh everywhere she went. Such a pivotal defensive assignment has become the norm for Natoli.
“You’ve just got to focus on your girl,” Natoli said. “If someone else is on her, you switch up. It’s not too difficult. You just have to play solid defense like you always do.”
MacIntosh finished with two goals and an assist, but the Lions (16-4) mostly kept her from powering offensive runs. Her sister Riley MacIntosh and Iris Gluck scored twice each. Sophie Hoyer made six saves in goal, but it wasn’t enough to stem the Lions’ tide.
Scarduzio tallied a hat trick to go with a team-high six draw controls. Natoli had two goals and two assists, and Carley Smith added two goals and a helper.
Last year’s run to the state semifinals constituted the first states wins for the Lions. Tuesday’s seemed more routine, but they’re trying not to take such wins for granted.
“We try not to keep it as an expectation,” Miller said. “Every game we have to win and completely win, give it our all. … Even though we did get this far last year, we can’t expect to come into these games and totally blow them out, and that’s what we have to remember.”
