After running roughshod over Ohio’s Western Reserve last week, St. Anne’s-Belfield’s girls lacrosse squad took a big leap in competition Tuesday with Merion-Mercy Academy out of Pennsylvania coming to town.
The Saints proved up to the task though, edging Merion-Mercy 9-8 with a late Caroline DiGiacomo providing the difference.
“We didn’t know what to expect and I felt like our team just dug deep and dug out that win,” said STAB coach Mary Blake. “It could’ve gone either way.”
The Saints fell into a 2-0 hole out of the gate against the Golden Bears, but with a strong response took a 4-3 lead midway through the first half. It was a strong sign for a team that’s replacing a number of key parts and is thin right now with a few players suffering from illnesses and only a handful of substitutes.
“We still have Caroline (DiGiacomo), Annie (Cory) and Maddie (Hunter) taking care of the midfield stuff,” Blake said. “They’ve got that competitive edge to them. But the surrounding cast did a great job without the turnovers and all that to be able to feed them.”
Cory in particular took control of the game, filling up the stat sheet with five goals, three ground balls and five draw controls as the Princeton commit did some major damage. She scored a key goal with under 20 seconds to play in the first half to give the Saints a 5-4 advantage going into the break. The Saints also seemed to do a better job as the game wore on of trying to control the pace of the game, another positive sign for a squad that’s still coming together.
“We’re definitely learning that,” Blake said. “We have to take control of the pace when we got on the offensive end instead of taking a quick one-on-one so we could rest. We had to make sure we were slowing it down a little.”
The Saints had to respond again down the stretch as Merion-Mercy pulled ahead 8-7. Cory stepped up yet again with the equalizer with 5:12 to play and then a strong defensive effort helped setup DiGiacomo’s goal with 2:33 left that became the game-winner. Neely Craig iced the game with a solid clear that allowed the Saints to run out the clock.
STAB keeper Brittany Schoeb made eight stops on the day, including one from point-blank range late in the second half.
Digiacomo finished with a hat trick and an assist. Kate Devine had one goal to round out the offensive effort. The Saints went 12-for-19 on draws, winning two of the final three in the second half with Cory and Maddie Hunter grabbing those two controls.
