©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Mount lax locks up playoff berth
by TOM UTESCHER

If Mount St. Joseph Academy had lost its final three league lacrosse games last week, the Magic could’ve found themselves tied with Newtown’s Villa Joseph Marie for the last available spot in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies.

The local laxers avoided that pitfall by nailing down a 13-7 victory in last Monday’s home match against Villa Joe, receiving four goals and two assists from Katie Burke, a hat trick from Megan Maginnis, and two goals and two assists from Liz Roberts. While the Magic still had two AACA contests ahead of them, their record of 6-4 put them out of reach of the Villa Joe Jems, who completed their league campaign at 4-8 (8-9 overall).

Mount St. Joe (9-7 overall) was the fourth seed in the 2005 playoffs, but managed to knock of top-seeded Villa Maria (of Malvern) in the semifinals before falling to Merion Mercy in the championship game. Merion and Villa Maria split their two regular season matches this spring and are tied atop the league standings, while the Mount and Gwynedd Mercy have earned the other two places in the league tournament.

Last Monday, the Mount never trailed after taking a 3-0 lead over the first eight minutes, when Burke assisted goals by Katie Gottschalk and Maginnis before scoring her first of the day off of a feed from Roberts. The Jems looked to make a game of it as Sarah Magnone and Julia Adden cut the lead to one goal in the middle of the opening period.

MSJ’s Julie Reinprecht scored off of Charlotte Flynn’s feed from behind the cage, then Villa Joe answered with a marker by Megan Walsh. The Magic extended their lead to 6-3 for halftime, thanks to an unassisted strike by Maginnis, and another Reinprecht goal (assisted by Roberts) that went in with 27 seconds remaining.

In the first six minutes of the second stanza, goals by Villa’s Adden and Magnone were sandwiched around two scores by MSJ’s Burke, one off of a free-position, and the other on an outside shot from the right side. At this point the visitors were still not out of it, trailing 8-5.

Now the Magic stepped on the gas, scoring four times in less than five minutes. The first three were unassisted efforts by Roberts, Burke, and Gottschalk. Seizing the following draw, the Mount neatly strung together a series of passes down the field, and Flynn delivered the ball inside to Maginnis for the Magic’s 12th goal.

In the final six minutes, Villa Joe’s last gasp took the form of a free-position goal by Christine Pfeil and a third goal by Adden, making it 12-7. Working behind the cage once more, MSJ’s Flynn earned her third assist of the day on a feed out front to Roberts, who cemented a six-goal margin for the Magic with just six seconds left in the game.

Caitlin Cumpstone collected 11 saves in goal for the winners, while Jems keeper Kim Clarke came away with an even dozen.