Mount lacrosse fades late at Upper Dublin

Posted 4/18/16

Mount junior defender Ashley Pyne (right) marks Upper Dublin’s Hannah Reape. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption] by Tom Utescher On April 10, 2015, Mount St. Joseph Academy pulled off a …

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Mount lacrosse fades late at Upper Dublin

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Mount junior defender Ashley Pyne (right) marks Upper Dublin’s Hannah Reape. (Photo by Tom Utescher) Mount junior defender Ashley Pyne (right) marks Upper Dublin’s Hannah Reape. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption]

by Tom Utescher

On April 10, 2015, Mount St. Joseph Academy pulled off a come-from-behind lacrosse victory at Upper Dublin High School, rallying from an early 0-7 deficit to win 9-8. A year and a day later, the visiting MSJ Magic exchanged roles with the host Lady Cardinals, who recovered from a 2-5 shortfall in the first period to knock off the Mount, 8-6.

Mount senior Meredith Bohner and Upper Dublin junior Jess Grodsky each recorded a hat trick to lead their respective teams in scoring, as the Cardinals improved to 2-3 and the Magic leveled off at 2-2.

Bohner, who is a team captain along with classmates Isabella Balcer and M.K. Maloney, did all of her scoring in the first period, and later had to retire from the action with a hamstring injury. She will attend the University of Virginia, following in the footsteps of her mother, Leslie Gillin Bohner, a former lacrosse standout at the old Springside School.

The other captains have both signed to play lacrosse in college, Balcer with Monmouth University and Maloney with Old Dominion.

The Magic are working under a new head coach, Brian Madeira, who played lacrosse at La Salle High School and Drexel University. One of his assistant coaches, Shannon Zoldy, is a former Mount athlete (’11) who went on to play for Lafayette College. The other assistant was actually a high school rival of Zoldy’s; Meg Bonner was a member of the team at another Catholic Academies school, Villa Joseph Marie.

Sophomore Cara Sheedy opened the scoring for the Mount at Upper Dublin last week, then the Mount went up 2-0 as Balcer assisted on Bohner’s opening strike. Five minutes in, Grodsky got Upper Dublin on the board.

Bohner then scored her second goal off of a feed from sophomore Natalie McNamara, a field hockey standout for the Magic. Upper Dublin junior Paige Lawton responded to keep the Cardinals close at 2-3, and the scoreboard paused there for about 10 minutes.

Next, the visitors pulled away to a 5-2 advantage with two quick markers by Maloney and Bohner, who rippled the net with 8:37 and 8:22 remaining in the first period. The Mounties looked to carry a three-point advantage into the intermission, but with 39 seconds left Grodsky handed the hosts their third goal of the game.

As the second half got underway, Hannah Reape assisted Cardinals teammate Elizabeth Barber to make it a one-goal affair, then MSJ’s Maloney levered the score back out to 6-4 with 18:40 left to play. This, though, would be Mount St. Joe’s last goal of the afternoon.

Four minutes later, the hosts were back within one as a nice passing sequence along the pitch ended with Grodsky completing her hat trick and prompting a time-out for the Magic.

Midway through the half, the officials dealt UD senior Jess Derr a yellow card invitation to sit a spell in the penalty box. After the game, she would receive a more pleasing invite; she was manning the scoring table for the JV game when she was asked to the school’s prom (she said yes).

The Cardinals had killed Derr’s penalty successfully, as Lawton came from behind the cage on the right to make a shovel shot with 10:40 to go. The scoreboard stuck for seven minutes with a 6-6 tie displayed, then sophomore Caroline Wall shot the eventual game-winning goal for the Cards with 3:20 remaining.

The hosts had the ball in their possession for much of the remainder of the game, and in the waning moments Wall went to goal again to make it an 8-6 final with 13.3 ticks on the clock.

Sophomore goalie Sarah Herchenroder made six saves for the victors, while MSJ junior Maggie McDonald made eight stops at the other end.

The Magic would bounce back the following evening to claim an 11-5 victory on the road at Souderton High School.

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