District 1 Class 3A Girls Lacrosse: Arden Jansen, Radnor defense quell Kennett threat, move on

RADNOR — April 18 seems like a long time ago in the Radnor girls lacrosse program.

That night, the Raptors wrapped up a fourth straight loss, a rarity for the Main Line power program, to drop to 3-4-1 on the not-so-young season.

“We were like, ‘OK this is not how Radnor plays,’” midfielder Sarah Kelley said Thursday. “And we turned it around.”

Thirty days and 10 wins later, the Raptors are one win from returning to states, after a 13-4 handling of Kennett in the second round of the District 1 Class 3A tournament. The hard-won chemistry from those early struggles turned what could’ve been a contentious 8-v-9 game between teams carrying eight-game winning streaks into a rout.

The other force doing that was goalie Arden Jansen, who No. 9 Kennett could not solve for 26 minutes. She pitched a first-half shutout with four saves. She finished with nine denials, including the 200th of her career.

By the time Kennett (14-6) finally found a way past her, Radnor (13-5-1) was eight goals in front.

“It’s so impressive,” Kelley said of her goalie. “I don’t know how she does it. She’s able to get in their heads.”

“It’s definitely tough,” Kennett junior Mary Carroll said. “Our attackers, we had a thing going that was working for us all season, and we figured out that in the first half, that wasn’t going to work and we had to switch it up.”

It wasn’t all Jansen, though she was spectacular. Her fourth save of the opening half was a kick save (and a beauty) on Megan Ward with 13 minutes left and the Raptors up by only 3-0. Her defense didn’t permit Kennett another look until early in the second half, a free-position shot that Jansen duly turned aside. Jansen added a massive interception, pouncing out of her crease with Radnor down a player late in the opening half.

“I give all the credit in the world to the defense,” Jansen said. “They absolutely killed it. They forced some really low-angle shots for me and had some amazing caused turnovers. They did awesome today.”

Kennett didn’t get on the board until Carroll, a junior defender and Northwestern commit, hopped into the attack in the second half. She scored twice, as did Ward. But with Radnor splitting the draws evenly and forcing its share of turnovers, there was no way back into the game.

The Raptors had the more aggressive start. Kelley and Taylor Murphy each had first-half hat tricks. Kelley’s speed in the open field, to go with a team-high four draw controls, was something Kennett couldn’t match. When they shifted Carroll her way, Murphy tallied a natural hat trick late in the first half, capped with 2:06 left before half on a scooped ground ball she dunked home.

By that point, Radnor had chased Kennett starting goalie Ella McCracken. Kennett would go to three netminders without any luck.

“We were just happy for the opportunity to be here,” Carroll said. “We were going to push our hardest, and we were excited for this opportunity and we wanted to capitalize on it. We know we can use this for next year, and we hope to get farther next year.”

Murphy capped the scoring by blistering home an eight-meter shot with 4:48 to play for her fourth. Angela Esgro scored twice, and Grayson Buono added two goals and an assist in the second half.

The ebb and flow of the season makes Radnor, if such a storied program ever could be, something of a dark horse. They lost by five goals at Springfield, the top seed that they’ll meet in the next round, during their skid. Since, they’ve booked one-goal wins against Garnet Valley, Conestoga and Villa Maria.

So what you see in the loss column is not necessarily what you get.

“I think it took a little bit for all of us to kind of mesh,” Jansen said. “We found our rhythm, and our coach always says, you don’t want to peak at the beginning of the season; you want to peak later and when it matters. The losses, I think they made us stronger. We learned so much from them, and we continue to build.”

“I think that gives us the personality as an underdog team,” Kelley said. “It gives us motivation to beat these higher-ranked teams, because we know we’re just as good; we just got off to a slow start.”