Offense, defense both in tune as Mount Saint Joseph bests Hershey to reach first PIAA semifinal

EXETER TWP. >> Maggie Rezza returned to the field determined to make good for her teammates.

The Mount Saint Joseph Academy junior midfielder had been carded early in the second half of Saturday’s PIAA 2A quarterfinal against Hershey, putting her team down for two minutes and when the Trojans scored nine seconds later, its lead in precarious position. Fortunately for Rezza, the Magic have a pretty good defense and made a stop that enabled her team to kill the rest of the penalty before she was able to re-enter, almost immediately draw a shooting foul and putting the eight-meter away for a three goal lead.

Thanks to yet another shared team effort on both ends of the field, the Mount’s magical season continued with an 11-6 win over Hershey at Exeter Township HS, sending the Magic to their first ever state semifinal.

“On yellow cards, we like to slow it down and hold the card, so coming off the card, I know they’re going to be slow and not going to see me coming from behind so that definitely helps,” Rezza said. “I wanted to get in there and do something with it since I got a card, so I definitely came in with a bang.”

Rezza was one of six Mount players to score, five of them had two goals apiece, in a balanced effort that’s defined the team’s postseason run that so far has also included the program’s first District I title. That kind of balance seemed the perfect counter to Herhsey, the District 3 runner-up and five-time Mid-Penn champions built around their robust defense.

Hershey’s defense, anchored by Mid-Penn Keystone MVP midfielder/defender Hailey Russell, was good on Saturday but the Mount’s was better. Senior goalie Annie Shields did her thing, making eight big stops in goal while the defenders and midfield in front of her locked up Hershey  at key points including when down a player and defending a two-goal lead not even six minutes into the second half.

The effectiveness of the Mount defense was summed up on its last possession. Even with the result well in hand, there was senior Kat Zampirri picking up her third caused turnover of the day plus the resultant ground ball to truly seal it all up.

“We knew they were going to cut a lot, we knew they had a few girls they really liked to get the ball to, so we all got together at practice and figured out ‘this how we’re going to take them, we’re going to do it this way,'” Zampirri said. “We had a few different plans going in and once we got here, they did exactly what we thought, so we just kept up what we had done at practice.”

On top of her two goals, Rezza had the helper on the game’s opening tally when she drew a double-team and found Katie Westmoreland slicing to the net. Rezza doubled the lead up two minutes later with a composed finish over a congestion of sticks and defenders after Sophie Peters found her in front off a restart and the Mount was on its way.

The Magic got up 3-0, with Shields making a tremendous save on Russell in between before the Mid-Penn standout beat the USC-bound senior for Herhsey’s first marker. Mount Saint Joseph responded by scoring the next three, took a 6-2 lead to the half and not only kept the ball moving, but played with aggression going toward the goal.

“In practice, we worked a lot on getting around the zone and I think that played well, we worked a lot on driving too, we knew we had to have hard drives which we did,” Rezza said. “We knew we needed to get on the eight-meter, which we did a lot. A lot of our goals came off the eight-meters, so that always helps.”

The Magic scored five times on eight-meters, plus the Peters to Rezza score, as the District I champs figured the best way to unsettle a good defense was to just keep going at it. Conversely, Mount Saint Joseph only allowed one goal off an eight-meter and in general, conceded far fewer free position opportunities even with an engaged defensive effort.

“I think it’s just us being together for so long,” Zampirri said of her team’s clean defending. “We’ve worked so much together that we’re just in-sync with each other at this point. We know when to help out, we know when to let one of our players just take the girl she’s on, we’re just really cohesive at this point.”

Mount Saint Joseph started the second half the way it had ended the first, a little sloppy on the offensive end with some turnovers stalling out possessions against a good defense. That opened the door some for Hershey, which was also controlling the draw control, to score the first two goals of the half with the second coming right after Rezza had been carded with 19:44 to play.

Once she was released, Rezza went to work and was rewarded with an eight-meter opportunity. The midfielder did an excellent job protecting the ball off the whistle, slipping through two defenders and beating the goalie to restore a three-goal lead at 8-5.

To Hershey’s credit, the Trojans did answer with a goal of their own to cut the lead back to two less than a minute later off a draw control win and quick-hitter. They wouldn’t score for 11 minutes after that, the combination of the Mount’s field defenders and Shields in goal walling off any further attempts to whittle into the lead while the Magic regained control.

It’s a playoff cliche that an in-form goalie can carry a team while the Mount has been playing well as a collective, Shields has done little to dispel that myth in the postseason. Her defenders are grateful having her back there too, the senior making a couple difficult saves on Saturday to cover for a few breakdowns.

“It’s awesome when we know Annie’s on a roll because we only have more help in case something goes wrong,” Zampirri said. “Annie’s been on a roll for, I feel like all season, it’s great having her in goal and it motivates us too when she comes up with these big saves.”

After Hershey’s goal that made it 8-6, the Mount called a timeout to reorganize and get things going on the draw. At one point trailing 11-3 on draws, the trio of Rezza, Kate Donovan and Kiersten Pumilia changed the tone by winning three in a row and scoring three straight goals.

Amelia Clair wrapped up the day for the offense with a goal off a great feed by Pumilia, giving her a hat trick for the game.Meghan Holmes tied Zampirri for the team lead with three caused turnovers and two ground balls on defense, Donovan had a goal, three draw controls and two ground balls and Peters finished with a goal and two assists.

“At halftime, we said we were a step behind, so I think we all got our heads in it on the circle,” Rezza said. “I changed up my draw personally and that helped a lot, I was pushing it more after. I think once we got that first step back, we were definitely back ahead.”

The Mount will take on defending state champion Archbishop Carroll, a 20-5 winner over Gwynedd Mercy Academy, in the program’s first state semifinal on Tuesday.

Classes ended for Mount Saint Joseph two weeks ago, but this postseason run has given the lacrosse players plenty of good reason to come back to school every day since then.

“This is the first time Mount’s ever gotten this far in states, so we want to do it again,” Zampirri said. “We had districts, now we have this, we just feel like we’re on a roll now. I’m happy when I come in every day, I just want to keep playing with my teammates and coaches.”

Mount St. Joseph 11, Hershey 5
Mount St. Joseph 6 5 – 11
Hershey 2 3 – 5
Goals-Assists: MSJA – Amelia Clair 3-0, Maggie Rezza 2-1, Sophie Peters 1-2, Ava Rossi 2-0, Katie Westmoreland 2-1, Kate Donovan 1-0, Kiersten Pumilia 0-1; H – Hanna Russell 2-2, Abby Hand 2-1, Avery Weaber 1-1, Hailey Russell 1-0