New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick likes to say after a close loss that the other team just made a few more plays, maybe just one or two.
That’s about as good an assessment as any of the Council Rock South girls lacrosse team’s season-ending loss to Lower Merion Tuesday afternoon in the first round of the PIAA District One Class 3A playoffs. Taking a 4-1 lead but then losing momentum and surrendering the advantage, host CR South battled back and had chances right up to the end before suffering an 11-10 loss.
While the setback marks the end of the 2023 campaign for 13th-seed CR South (14-5), 20th-seed Lower Merion (11-8) will go on to play at fourth seed Penncrest Thursday at 7 p.m.
Tuesday’s game was a rematch of a regular season contest that saw Lower Merion top CR South 10-6 about two weeks ago. This one was closer but the same result for the Golden Hawks.
“I’m very proud of our team,” Council Rock South head coach Madison Hurwitz said afterward. “Excellent season, excellent senior leadership. We had a little lull in the second half, but our team came back and gave it everything they had.”
Clicking offensively at the start, the Golden Hawks took a 4-1 lead at 17:28 of the first half before the Aces stormed back with five straight goals and a 6-4 lead at halftime.
“I think we stopped going to goal hard in transition and had a few too many turnovers,” said Hurwitz of CR South’s loss of momentum after the three-goal lead. “But then the girls dug in and got it back.”
Council Rock South never got the lead back, but also never trailed by more than two goals for the rest of the game. The Golden Hawks managed to tie the game at 9 with 9:21 left, and again at 10 with 6:30 remaining. Lower Merion scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal with 4:51 left and took an 11-10 lead. Aces’ goalkeeper Hadley Rubin made two clutch saves in the final few minutes to deny CR South another tie, and Lower Merion played keep away with the ball in the last two minutes to seal the victory.
Senior Amy Loving led CR South in scoring with four goals while senior Karissa Smedley had two goals and two assists. Elizabeth Hearn, Kelly Longmore, Kate Deal and Ella Mayberry had the other CR South goals, while Amanda Green had two assists and Loving and Longmore one assist each. Goalkeeper Kaya Mallon had 12 saves and was praised by Hurwitz for her performance.
“They seemed to win all the draws, and that kind of killed us,” said Loving, referring to the midfield bids for possession of the ball after each goal. “The turnovers in transition also hurt, but our players played their hearts out as much as they could. This season has been great. I couldn’t ask for a better team to play with.”
Council Rock South was without two of its key players for the game, Zoe Brossman and Meg Rafter, both out with injuries.
“We started off very strong, had the energy, had the momentum, but they called a timeout and we kind of lost our way a little bit,” Smedley said. “We started to recover, but I don’t think we ever fully got all the momentum back. It’s a game of runs and their momentum lasted longer than ours.”
Another senior, Grace Franchini, said the Golden Hawks gave a very good accounting of themselves.
“We came to play,” she noted. “Both teams fought hard and it was back and forth for most of the game. Both teams played their hearts out, but in the end I think the draws were important and they were just a little better in the end than we were.”
Avery Bickell led Lower Merion with five goals, while Finley Hoffman added three goals and an assist. Rubin had seven saves in goal.
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