The ball is jarred loose in a collision between SCH senior Natalie Schwartz (left) and Friends Central goalie Anne Pizzini. Schwartz scored a hat trick in the game, and the next day she scored six times to go over the 100-goal mark for her career. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

A dozen minutes into last Tuesday’s lacrosse season opener against defending Friends School League champion Friends Central, the girls of host Springside Chestnut Hill Academy held a slim 2-1 advantage. Then, in a span of a little over seven minutes, the Blue Devils broke the game open with a 7-0 surge. They went on to post a 13-3 victory over the FC Phoenix, who slipped to 0-2 in the young season.

Senior Natalie Schwartz and junior Mason Rode each recorded hat tricks, and there were two goals apiece by junior Taylor Ferry and by the Watson sisters, Mikaela, a senior, and Kianah, a freshman. Ninth-grader Savannah Sweitzer furnished the other goal for the victors, who received eight saves in goal from senior Elsa Rall.

“We’ve had some very disciplined practices and we’ve worked on plays that had people in a lot of different spots,” related head coach Allison Thomas. “We just needed to go out and execute those things in a game. It took a little while to get everything working, but then it came together, and we were able to get everyone into the game today.”

In their final pre-season scrimmage, a game-format session with Abington High School on March 16, the Blue Devils had gotten a confidence boost through a come-from-behind 10-9 victory in overtime. SCH had actually been missing five players for that trial run.

For Friends Central, Thomas noted, “We had everybody back, and it was great to see how we looked with all our players on the field.”

In the transition game, the coach commented, “Our low defense and our attack were working to support the midfield on our clears. The re-defending was very strong on the attack side, and when they started to clear the ball out we reversed that a lot of times.”

Friends Central was missing a few players for the encounter, including All-American Jesse Rubin. Still, the Phoenix were able to keep the Blue Devils off the scoreboard for more than eight minutes. On two early free positions on the arc, the Blue Devils shot the ball right into FC senior goalie Anne Pizzini.

After a short stretch of offense by the visitors, SCH came back down the field to earn another free position opportunity, and this time Mikaela Watson cashed in, giving the hosts an early lead with 8:40 elapsed. A minute later, the Blue Devils’ Rall turned away a shot by Sophie Berger of the Phoenix, and soon after that Sweitzer balanced at the brink of the FC crease and deposited SCH’s second goal off of a feed from Ferry.

The local sticksters would prove adept with their short passes near the cage in the set offense.

“We were able to utilize the small game around the goal,” Thomas remarked. “Most of the girls know each other pretty well, so they make eye contact and the know when the other one’s going to cut. We really made some nice connections all over the field today.”

Friends Central got back to 1-2 when Hayden Posencheg got the visitors on the board just over 11 and a half minutes into the game, but just 40 seconds later the Blue Devils began an offensive burst that saw Schwartz, Kianah Watson and Ferry find the net in a span of less than two minutes. All these goal were assisted, showcasing the precise passing in close quarters to which Thomas referred.

Springside Chestnut Hill rolled on to a 9-1 lead with five minutes still to go in the first half. The Phoenix posed a few offensive threats, but the Blue Devils’ Rall limited them to a single point until the last minute of the first half.

“Elsa was a powerhouse back there and her clears were really nice,” Thomas said.

One of the players who’d missed the Abington scrimmage was junior defender Gabby Dunning, who’d been out with a minor injury.

SCH’s skipper pointed out, “Gabby helps pull things together in the back for us, because she’s very good with being vocal with the other defenders.”

The visitors’ Berger scored with 40 seconds left to set the halftime score at 9-2. After the hosts went up by 13-2 in the middle of the second period, the subs flooded onto the field.

“The freshmen have been great and the subs stepped up when they went in,” Thomas noted. “They help give our team a lot of versatility, so that we can set up in a number of different ways.”

The 13-3 final score went up on the board with 26 seconds left in the game, when Berger scored her second goal for the Phoenix.

UPDATE: A day after the Friends Central game, the Blue Devils won their Inter-Ac League opener, knocking off visiting Baldwin School, 18-10. On attack, Schwartz led SCH with six goals, including the 100th of her varsity career. The other multiple-goal scorers were Mikaela Watson (four), Rode (three), and Ferry (two).