PIAA Class 3A Girls Lacrosse: Breedveld helps Radnor breeze past Emmaus
EMMAUS — On Radnor’s state championship team last season, with the array of attacking talents around her, Julie Breedveld had a role. She worked hard on draw controls, provided responsible two-way midfield play, and was the safe-handling outlet in transition. Should the matchup and the moment call for it, she could also score a little bit, with 19 goals.
This year, with so many of those seniors gone, and a new coach in Lis Zuern, Breedveld and her fellow Raptors have felt their way through expanded roles, occupying niches vacated and flexing the depth of their games.
At a big moment Tuesday, Breedveld picked a fine time to have a career day. She tied a career-high with five goals and added an assist in Radnor’s first step toward defending that Class 3A crown, an 11-6 over District 11 champion Emmaus at the Hornets’ Memorial Field.
“I think it was definitely a big adjustment losing a lot of seniors last year, but I think the underclassmen have really stepped up,” Breedveld said. “This senior class, we’re really close. So I think especially in this game, we learn to work together, and the underclassmen definitely stepped up, even though for some of them, it’s their first states game.”
Consider the adjustment made by Breedveld. She started with a pair of caused turnovers, picking off loose passes and harshly informing the Hornets (18-4) not to pass within her flight radius.
Eventually, that led to Breedveld scoring. On a day when Radnor (17-4) pushed the issue a few too many times, trying to force passes that weren’t there through the middle of a compact Emmaus zone, Breedveld found a mismatch on whoever tried to match her footspeed.
Tack on six draw controls, and Breedveld equaled the entire Emmaus team in total goal contributions and DCs on the day.
The 13-6 edge in draw controls helped the District 1 fourth seed run out to a 6-0 lead, capped by two Breedveld free-position shots within 50 seconds, with 11:13 left in the first. Emmaus didn’t wither, though, and a pair of goals by Julia Cote slashed the lead in half to 6-3.
“I feel like in the past years, we would’ve felt defeated by the third goal when we were down,” Cote said. “But we stayed in it, we kept our intensity up. I’m very proud of the girls this whole entire season. Intensity has been our mentality, and we definitely showed it tonight.”
Radnor led 7-3 at half thanks to Breedveld recycling possession on a counterattack and finding Amelia Reinholt for a goal with seven ticks left on the clock.
That sequence illustrated the difference Tuesday. With Breedveld or the Kelley sisters – Olivia had a goal and three draw controls, Sarah had two goals and an assist – Radnor gained ground in open field with ease. For Emmaus, even routine clears looked anything but, as the Raptors hawked passing lanes that otherwise seemed available.
It’s why, even with Cote setting up Emily Hollinger’s second goal to make it 8-4 early in the second half, Radnor seemed unbothered.
Taylor Murphy had two goals and an assist in the first half for Radnor. Reinholt tallied a goal and two helpers. Arden Jansen was the better of the goalies, the sophomore making six saves.
The confidence with the ball allowed Breedveld to control the draw after Melea Weber made it 10-6 with 5:16 left and for Radnor to milk more than five minutes off the clock, draw a yellow card and have Reinholt set up a Breedveld dunk on the crease to finish it.
“We practice all the time holding the ball and trusting each other,” Breedveld said. “We knew we could hold the ball and trust each other. We knew we could win it, so I think we were all confident in each other.”
