Girls Soccer: Clara Davis fills in nicely for Strath Haven

NETHER PROVIDENCE — It wasn’t long after the final whistle Tuesday night that Clara Davis asked coach Gino Miraglia when he needed her goalkeeper’s jersey back.

It’s a loaner for Davis, listed on the Strath Haven girls soccer roster as a freshman forward. Though Tuesday, with Radnor visiting, that position was hastily scratched out in favor of “GK.” With regular goalie, junior Laura Shea, out and no one else on the roster with those two magical letters next to their game, Miraglia left it open for volunteers.

Davis, who serves as the backup for her club team, raised her hand. Before she could put it down, Miraglia put a glove on it.

“I knew that I could play goalie really well,” Davis said. “My coaches have encouraged me at it. I was like, I can do this.”

Davis proved she could, though her evening ran the gamut. She conceded an unseemly opener three minutes in, then supplied eight saves in a valiant performance to allow two goals and an assist from Annie Dignazio, setting up Ruby Lane’s game-winner, to pace the Panthers to a 3-2 overtime win.

Davis had, shall we say, a suboptimal. Selah Koleth, Radnor’s midfield magician, caught her off her line in the third minute, lofting a 35-yard shot into an unoccupied half of the net.

But Davis took it in stride, with a little inspiration from center backs Elise Molloy and her twin sister, Adelyn Davis.

“I was defeated, but I came back up and I was like, we can still win,” Clara Davis said. “… (Elise) kept saying that I could do this and I was perfectly fine and that we could make it back.”

The second goal, no one was stopping, Ivy Chaskelson clipping a shot from the top of the penalty area off the underside of the crossbar. But otherwise, she stood tall. It helped that Strath Haven, led by Lily Ostiguy, controlled the field-position game in midfield in the first half. That forestalled Radnor flooding forward en masse.

But Radnor (2-3-1, 1-1-1 Central) shifted the game after the break. The midfield is a work in progress, having lost three outstanding seniors – Kate Boujoukos, All-Delco Jane Diautolo and Player of the Year Emily Daiutolo – from last year’s PIAA Class 3A runner-up. Koleth pulls the strings, but a shift of Sarah Kelley centrally with Olivia Jacobs as the holder providing a shield to maintain high possession.

“During halftime, our goal was to keep it on the ground, get passing combinations,” Kelley said. “I think we did that in the second half. … It’s like a puzzle. We’re still trying to figure out where everybody works best and who they work best with.”

Lucky for Strath Haven (4-2, 2-1), they don’t need the ball to create chances. Not as long as they have the irrepressible presence of Dignazio, closing down defenders and poaching goals. She evened the game in the 25th minute, getting her head to a corner-kick second ball by Adelyn Davis. Dignazio stuck her head bravely into a challenge an instant before Malloy Toomey’s fists made contact with one of the round objects in her airspace.

Chaskelson’s goal in the 71st, with Jacobs getting the assist with a bombing run down the left, set loose the Panthers to chase an equalizer. Two minutes from time, Dignazio found it. Toomey (6 saves) appeared to snuff out Dignazio’s first attempt, but the ball hopped up just enough for the forward to poke it loose, take a touch, turn and fire a shot from the right channel nestling inside the far post.

“Ten minutes left, give it all you have,” Dignazio said. “Last year, there were so many games we lost by one, and it’s kind of the same returning group, so I think everyone had that grit from last year that we don’t want to go to overtime and lose it.”

Dignazio almost won it at the buzzer, volleying just over the bar and through the football uprights. Her pull back to Marley Feinberg in the 83rd nearly did it, Feinberg’s curling shot hitting the inside of the far post and bouncing out after nipping along the goal line.

Dignazio turned provider in OT. She broke loose down the left in the 89th and had a momentary sight of goal. Instead of trying to thread a tight-angle shot to the near post, she spied Lane all by herself at the far post. Dignazio weighted the cross right, and Lane dinked home the winner past a scrambling Toomey.

“I saw Ruby and I trust Ruby, playing with her for club,” Dignazio said. “I was like, OK Ruby is going to hit it. Knowing Ruby was there, I just sent it and was like, Ruby’s got it. I didn’t even have to look. I knew she was going to hit it in.”

Haven didn’t look likely to get to that point 86 minutes earlier, when Koleth scored. So there was little doubt who got the loudest cheers in the postgame huddle.

“She’s a beast on the field,” Dignazio said of Clara Davis. “She’s a great teammate because we needed a goalie and she stepped in. We didn’t need to pull someone from JV. She was there for us, and you can see, she can play striker, midfield or defense … or goalie. I don’t know anybody that can do that.”

Elsewhere in the Central League:

Penncrest 7, Upper Darby 0 >> Strong midfield play from Taryn Tagtmeier, Sophie Phillips and Emma Strahan paved the way for the Lions (3-3-0).

Kaitlyn Roth paced the offense with two goals. Strahan, Tagtmeir, Phillips, Cara Childs and Emily Huggins also scored.

Springfield 3, Ridley 2 >> Liv Gutowski tallied twice including the winner on a perfectly placed free kick from 25 yards out with time running out in the second overtime.

Gutowski’s first goal game the Cougars (4-1, 2-1) a 1-0 halftime lead. Coryn Silberstein scored in the second half off of an assist from Gutowski to make it 2-0.

Erin Galanaugh scored both goals for the Green Raiders including the equalizer off a free kick. Rachel Jarman made 11 saves in goal.

In nonleague action:

Episcopal Academy 6, Hun School 0 >> Kate Dente and Maya Bright combined for four goals and four assists.

Dente tallied twice and dished out three helpers while Bright tallied two goals and handed out one assist. Bridget Dempsey and Grace McHugh also scored for the Churchwomen while Maya Namoli (one save) and Faith Leake (two saves) combined on the shutout.

Cardinal O’Hara 5, Friends’ Central 0 >> Lily Marquis, Hope Scolis, Maddie Ellis, Greta Miller and Caitlin Henzel scored one goal each for the Lions. Ava Hheleski and Kaelynn DiEnnis made one save each in goal