Clara Davis fills in nicely for Strath Haven

NETHER PROVIDENCE — It wasn’t long after the final whistle Tuesday night that Clara Davis asked coach Gino Miraglia when he needed her goalkeeper’s jersey back.

It’s a loaner for Davis, listed on the Strath Haven girls soccer roster as a freshman forward. Though Tuesday, with Radnor visiting, that position was hastily scratched out in favor of “GK.” With regular goalie, junior Laura Shea, out and no one else on the roster with those two magical letters next to their game, Miraglia left it open for volunteers.

Davis, who serves as the backup for her club team, raised her hand. Before she could put it down, Miraglia put a glove on it.

“I knew that I could play goalie really well,” Davis said. “My coaches have encouraged me at it. I was like, I can do this.”

Davis proved she could, though her evening ran the gamut. She conceded an unseemly opener three minutes in, then supplied eight saves in a valiant performance to allow two goals and an assist from Annie Dignazio, setting up Ruby Lane’s game-winner, to pace the Panthers to a 3-2 overtime win.

Davis had, shall we say, a suboptimal. Selah Koleth, Radnor’s midfield magician, caught her off her line in the third minute, lofting a 35-yard shot into an unoccupied half of the net.

But Davis took it in stride, with a little inspiration from center backs Elise Molloy and her twin sister, Adelyn Davis.

“I was defeated, but I came back up and I was like, we can still win,” Clara Davis said. “… (Elise) kept saying that I could do this and I was perfectly fine and that we could make it back.”

The second goal, no one was stopping, Ivy Chaskelson clipping a shot from the top of the penalty area off the underside of the crossbar. But otherwise, she stood tall. It helped that Strath Haven, led by Lily Ostiguy, controlled the field-position game in midfield in the first half. That forestalled Radnor flooding forward en masse.

But Radnor (2-3-1, 1-1-1 Central) shifted the game after the break. The midfield is a work in progress, having lost three outstanding seniors – Kate Boujoukos, All-Delco Jane Diautolo and Player of the Year Emily Daiutolo – from last year’s PIAA Class 3A runner-up. Koleth pulls the strings, but a shift of Sarah Kelley centrally with Olivia Jacobs as the holder providing a shield to maintain high possession.

“During halftime, our goal was to keep it on the ground, get passing combinations,” Kelley said. “I think we did that in the second half. … It’s like a puzzle. We’re still trying to figure out where everybody works best and who they work best with.”

Lucky for Strath Haven (4-2, 2-1), they don’t need the ball to create chances. Not as long as they have the irrepressible presence of Dignazio, closing down defenders and poaching goals. She evened the game in the 25th minute, getting her head to a corner-kick second ball by Adelyn Davis. Dignazio stuck her head bravely into a challenge an instant before Malloy Toomey’s fists made contact with one of the round objects in her airspace.

Chaskelson’s goal in the 71st, with Jacobs getting the assist with a bombing run down the left, set loose the Panthers to chase an equalizer. Two minutes from time, Dignazio found it. Toomey (6 saves) appeared to snuff out Dignazio’s first attempt, but the ball hopped up just enough for the forward to poke it loose, take a touch, turn and fire a shot from the right channel nestling inside the far post.

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Strath Haven goalkeeper Clara Davis grabs a free kick in the first half Tuesday. The freshman filled in as the Panthers’ goalie for a 3-2 overtime win over Radnor. (PETE BANNAN-DAILY TIMES)