GFS high scorer Celia Meyer (left) drives to goal against Catie Brook of Springside Chestnut Hill. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Although a light rain began to fall during the latter stages of last Saturday's lacrosse match at Germantown Friends, it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the players as the host Tigers got out an early lead and then had to hold off a resurgent Springside Chestnut Hill squad for a 12-10 victory.

Junior midfielder Celia Meyer, a Chestnut Hill resident, performed center draws, scored six of her team's 12 goals, and dispensed three assists as the Tigers took their overall record above the .500 mark to 4-3. Another 11th-grader, goalie Corin Grady, made 10 saves in the cage for GFS, which remained at 2-1 in the Friends Schools League after Saturday's non-league encounter.

Germantown had played a pair of league games earlier in the week, getting edged in overtime at Shipley School, 8-7, and then rolling over Westtown on Friday afternoon, 14-2.

Springside Chestnut Hill's lone win so far this spring came against Shipley in early April (16-8), and last weekend's result left the Blue Devils with an overall mark of 1-7, despite hat tricks from senior Taylor Ferry and freshman Dakota Carter and 12 stops in the net for senior Destini Curry.

In the only league game SCH played last week, a 7-16 shortfall in a match with Germantown Academy gave the Devils a mark of 0-3 in the Inter-Ac.

Two weeks ago, the Blue Devils had been edged, 7-6, by two time defending FSL champion Friends Central, so in a sense, the GFS team was able to use last Saturday's game as sort of a measuring stick.

After the SCH match, longtime Germantown Friends head coach Katie Bergstrom-Mark commented, "We value this rivalry because it really gets us ready for our big league games. Also, a lot of kids on these two teams grew up together, so it's fun to see how things pan out on the field. We've been working on a quick start in games to establish momentum, and I thought our team did that today."

The Tigers took the opening draw, and with just 39 seconds gone Meyer got them on the board with a free position shot. SCH tied it up with 1:23 elapsed, when sophomore Savannah Sweitzer came from behind the crease on the left side and fed the ball to the scorer, Ferry, in front of the cage.

Meyer drove in just over a minute later to move the home team back in front, and this time the Tigers stayed there. A potential tying shot by SCH senior Mason Rode was turned aside by Germantown's Grady, and once the Tigers got the ball to Curran McLaughlin up near the midfield stripe she galloped the rest of the way toward the Blue Devils' goal and netted the third GFS marker.

Over the next five minutes, the visiting Curry stopped two free position shots by the hosts, but GFS senior Sophie Smith and sophomore Jane MacRae each scored in real-time play to make it 5-1 with 16:07 remaining in the opening period. The Blue Devils stopped their slide briefly when an assist from sophomore Riley Redpath set up another strike by Ferry on the doorstep of the Tigers' cage. After this, Meyer completed the first of her two hat tricks for the hosts, and Smith's second goal gave GFS a 7-2 advantage with 4:40 left in the half.

Sophie Smith of Germantown Friends (with ball) moves down the wing while marked by Mason Rode of SCH. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

In between these last two Tiger tallies, Grady made a timely stop on an open shot by the Devils after they raced downfield in transition.

"I really think we have the best goalie around," Bergstrom-Mark said. "She's so fast and she's so steady."

The Blue Devils were looking a little wobbly, but first-year head coach Kasey Mock knew her players had the capacity to recover.

"The first five or 10 minutes were tough for us," she admitted, "but they knew they could get back in it and they started chipping away and proved it to themselves."

In the last four minutes before the intermission, the visitors would outscore their hosts 4-1, starting out with back-to-back markers by Rode at 3:59 and 1:47. Controlling the next draw, the Blue Devils came right back down the field. Gifted freshman Dakota Carter dodged past multiple Germantown defenders to score, getting SCH back within two goals (7-5) with 1:28 to go.

However, it looked like GFS regained a little momentum to take into the halftime huddle when Meyer bagged her fourth goal of the day with 27.3 seconds showing. Still, Springside Chestnut Hill managed to have the last word before the break, as Ferry completed her hat trick with just 5.8 seconds remaining to pause the scoreboard at 8-6.

New SCH mentor Mock hadn't known much about the Tigers beforehand.

"There was no specific agenda coming in," she explained. "We're just working on a lot of different aspects of our game. We saw some things happen out on the field that we've been working on in practice. The defense was doing a lot of things well, we were making saves, we were clearing and riding. After we got behind early we made some little adjustments in the draw circle and on defense, and that helped us."

At the start of the new period, sophomore Kianah Watson drove through the arc to score with 48 seconds gone, making it a one-goal game.

After that though, Germantown Friends performed the way it had early in the first period, stringing a number of goals together.

With 20 minutes to, go MacRae came from the back of the cage on the left to score, and less than a minute later Meyer cashed in after picking off an SCH pass in the Blue Devils' defensive half. A goal was initially awarded to Springside Chestnut Hill's Rode, but that ruling was reversed because after the ball was stopped by Grady and rolled toward the goal line, it never entirely crossed the boundary.

This came during a 10-minute lull in scoring, then following a GFS time-out, Meyer looped out on the right from behind the goal to score with 9:06 on the clock. Next, the Tiger junior who is described by her coach as "our powerhouse," stayed behind the cage and passed the ball out front to Smith, who dodged an opponent to score the hosts' 12th goal with 8:23 to go in the game.

As Bergstrom-Mark mentioned, "We've been working on setting up our attack quickly and drawing the defenders out to open up lanes to the goal."

Now, however, SCH began to respond, and just 17 seconds after GFS reached its final total, Carter penetrated to score number eight for the visiting side. The Blue Devils struck quickly once again, this time seeing Watson hit the target for a 12-9 count with 7:42 left to play.

Meyer got loose for GFS in transition, but Curry came up with an important stop for SCH. If not for the efforts of this first-year keeper (a former soccer goalie converted to lacrosse only this spring), the visitors might have fallen entirely out of contention earlier in the contest.

"She does a really nice job; she's a competitor," SCH's Mock stated. "The progress from where she started to now is phenomenal. She made some big saves that you would expect from a goalie that's played her whole life."

From a free position on the right side, Carter made good for SCH at the other end of the pitch, and the Devils were just two goals back (10-12) with 4:17 to go.

There were numerous changes in possession the rest of the way. After the first few of these reversals, GFS turned the ball over on a clear and it was recovered by Watson. This led to a shot by Redpath with 2:01 remaining, but the 10th-grader was called for a dangerous follow-through and was sent to the penalty box with a yellow card.

The Tigers then were able to hold onto the ball until only about 20 seconds were left. The Blue Devils came down the field, still down by two points, and an outside shot by Watson was repulsed by Grady just a few ticks before the final horn.

Winning coach Bergstrom-Mark felt her team executed its game plan well, relating, "We knew they had some good crease rolls, but we did a good job on that and overall our defense did a really good job down there."

She praised the primary defensive unit consisting of sisters Lindsey and Marlie Golden (a junior and a sophomore), and freshmen McLaughlin and Maribel Carpenter.

"Our players like each other and are having a lot of fun together, and they want to work hard," the coach summed up.

Springside Chestnut Hill had kept pace for much of the morning, but paid for defensive lapses that helped GFS put together a solid run of points in each half.

"We're a very capable team," Mock said, "but we need to play like that the entire time and not just put it all together for chunks of the game."