Top seed Harriton advances to District 1-3A semis, sends Owen J. Roberts to playbacks

BRYN MAWR >> Owen J. Roberts trailed by only a goal after a wild first half of Saturday morning’s District 1-3A girls lacrosse quarterfinal. But nothing much went right for the Wildcats after that.

The eighth-seeded Wildcats were relegated to a must-win playback game after a 16-11 loss at top-seeded Harriton.
Katelin Williams and Allison Schwab each scored four times for the Rams (19-1), who clinched a spot in the PIAA Class 3A Tournament. Hannah Delahaye scored three for the eighth-seeded Wildcats (15-4), who need to win on Tuesday when they host West Chester Rustin in a 7 p.m. match.

Roberts was outscored 7-3 in the second half while playing without senior co-captain Eloise Gebert, who drew two yellow cards.

“We lost one of our top players early in the second half,” said OJR coach David Schlesinger. “She’s a vital person on the draw and our second-leading scorer. That was a huge loss.”

The Wildcats came up with just one of the 11 draws in the second half, and Sophia Murray scored 18 seconds after her team won that face-off. But that only brought them back to within 14-10. Harriton countered with goals by Williams and Schwab to wrap up the win.

“They’re a very talented team,” said Schlesinger. “We needed to keep it tighter. We lost a little composure after the second card. I like the way we got our composure back and battled to the final horn.”

Williams, who helped the Rams take an early 4-1 advantage, was excited and tired afterwards.

“I haven’t been in states once in my entire career,” said the Harriton senior attack, an All-Central League first-team selection. “The other team did a great job. It was a hard game. We’re all exhausted.”

Harriton, which knocked off defending state champion Unionville 20-11 on Thursday, scored four in a row – the last two by Williams – for a 4-1 advantage. Then the Wildcats called a time out and answered with five consecutive goals over the next five minutes to take their largest lead of the match, 6-4.

But the Rams scored three late in the first half to regain the upper hand and Schwab, another league first-team pick, scored three minutes into the second half for a 10-8 margin. Then after Gracyn Smith scored with her team a player up following a Harriton yellow card, the Rams took control with four scores in a row.

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