Conestoga holds off Springfield in battle of unbeatens

BERWYN - Two teams walked into Teamer Field on a perfect Thursday evening. After 48 minutes of high level girls lacrosse, one left still having a zero in the loss column.

Conestoga jumped out to a lead by smothering Springfield (Delco), then withstood a furious late rally to record an 8-7 victory in a Central League showdown between the two remaining unbeaten teams in District 1.

"This victory means a lot," said junior Lu Misener. "We've worked really hard yesterday (Wednesday) in practice making sure that everything was clicking. And today, just the mentality of have fun and play as a team was our main goal."

The Pioneers move to 13-0, 8-0 Central League, and haven taken the pole position in the 3A and the state rankings. Springfield falls to 12-1 and 8-1.

"Conestoga played really well, okay," said veteran Springfield coach Keith Broome. "I thought the goalie (Courtney Smock) played well. I thought the defense played well and I thought their team played well. I thought their defense gave us problems. We didn't respond until late and we did a nice job at the end. But overall, they won the game. They played better than us."

The Cougars had a chance to jump on top early, but hit the crossbar, one of four crossbars or posts they hit through the evening.

‘Stoga took the lead as Misener cut across the defense from left to right, then shot to beat goalie Harpor Garrett inside the left post.

Springfield tied it up with 2:47 as senior Katie Keffer drove in on goal and beat Smock straight on.In the second, ‘Stoga jumped back on top as Misener one-timed a shot into the net off a pass from Tori Hewitt at the 8:41 mark.

"My goals were kind of unexpected personally," Misener said. "I wasn't expecting the first one because I wasn't expecting to be have that wide open goal and able to place my shot. My second goal, Tori fed me on my cut. We were practicing our cuts and that was clicking today too."

The Cougars tied the score again on a free position from sophomore Frankie Summa as she bounced a shot into the net past Smock.

Conestoga scored twice a minute apart to take the lead for good late in the half. First, Biana Antonacci tallied on a free position. Then, Antonacci played provider as she found Hewitt in front for a 4-2 lead heading into the halftime break.

"They're a very good team. They're very physical," said Conestoga first-year coach Jacyln Collins. "I think our team did exactly what we planned to do and that's why we walked away with the win, I think. They came back at the end and that was a little scary."

Both defenses were the main players in the third quarter, limiting the scoring chances on both ends. The Cougars cut it to 4-3 as Eva Lemeuix notched her first of the game on a bullet of a shot from 15-yards out that went in underneath the crossbar. The Pioneers restored their two-goal lead on a tally by Julia Cowgill with 2:30 left.

Conestoga pulled away in the first part of the fourth on a pair of goals from Brooke Bickel and one from Maggie Neary.

Smock made three key saves, of her eight for the contest, in the quarter as the Pioneers held a seemingly insurmontable 8-3 lead as they held the Cougars scoreless for over 11 minutes and caused 10 turnovers on the evening.

"Our defense played outstanding," added Collins. "We have a very strong defense that is mostly returning people who are a tight unit. They play so well together and they know how to shut teams down."

The Springfield offense got untracked as Mia Wainwright scored with 3:21 left to cut the deficit to 8-4. Lemiuex netted a score seconds later to make it 8-5. They trimmed the lead to two as Lemiuex collected his third of the game,

Mary Longo made the home fans even more nervous as she on a break with 11 seconds left to trail, 8-7.

After a timeout to settle things down, neither team could control the draw as the time expired.

"Their pressure caused us to make mistakes," added Broome. "When you make unforced errors, you're not going to win games. We had a lull on draw controls in the the third and fourth quarters. Then, we started to win the draw and we scored. I loved the way the girls battled back at the end of the game."

Springfield defeated Conestoga in the regular season, district and states last season and they could meet in the same stages ths year.

"Last year we saw them three times," said Misener. "Going 0-3 against puts a fire under our butts and that win today was really, really needed."

Conestoga 8, Springfield (Delco) 7Springfield (Delco) 1 1 1 4 - 7Conestoga 1 3 1 3 - 8Springfield (Delco) goals: Lemeuix 3, Keffer, Longo, Summa, Wainwright.Conestoga goals: Misener 2, Bickel 2, Hewitt, Neary, Antonacci, Cowgill.Goalie saves: Garrett (S) 5; Smock (C) 8.

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