Kennett battled back, scoring six consecutive goals, but fell short in 20-11 loss By Dave Conard Sports Editor, KennettTimes.com
University of Michigan recruit Sophie DuPhily makes a sweet move to score one of her three goals on the days
KENNETT SQUARE—It’s an obvious fact that high school lacrosse is a game of momentum.
For about ten minutes on Tuesday afternoon, on the sun drenched turf dedicated to the memory of John M. Whiteside, Mr. MO-mentum was wearing the white and royal blue jersey of the Blue Demons.
After trailing 10-5 at halftime, Kennett took command of the tilt following the intermission as they torched the net of the 2011 state runner up Cougars for 6 goals in a four minute span to climb to within one goal of Downingtown East at 12-11 with 18:46 left in the game, forcing East head coach Christa Somits to call time out.
“I talked to them in that time out about getting back to what we were doing in early part of the game,” said Somits. “Kennett has some very talented players and they really had grabbed all of the momentum there. We are a young team and when it starts going bad we fall into making mistakes and I wanted to give them a minute to take a breath and refocus.”
Kennett sophomore goaltender McKenna Colye forces the East forward to change her shot
The mere fact that Kennett, despite being out shot by almost a two-to-one margin, remained in striking distance could be contributed to the stand out play of sophomore net minder McKenna Coyle.
While many goalies may have tendency to check out mentally when trailing by a score of 12 –6 as Kennett did early in the second half, Coyle stayed razor sharp making two outstanding saves while the Blue Demons were shorthanded for five minutes while junior phenom Sophie DuPhily had received a yellow card to close out the first half.
After the break and the return of DuPhily, who would lead the come back charge with two goals within a minute of each other, Coyle again made two astounding saves keeping the lead at six allowing the opportunity for Kennett to mount their charge.
“I love the challenge of playing goalie,” said Coyle, while be greeted after the game by her club coach, who is an assistant coach for East. “I always want to be the one the challenge a shooter, if I wait for them to come to me, I have little chance, I never want to be afraid to make a mistake.”
Following the wisely called time out by Somits, it was as if some one flicked a switch on the Blue Demons offense as Downingtown East scored eight unanswered goals to close out the game, posting the visitors to a 20-11 Ches-Mont league win, leaving the young Demons wondering where it went wrong.
It wasn’t that Kennett was missing their shots or not taking advantage of scoring chances, they just weren’t getting any, as thanks to East’s suffocating defense, Kennett recorded just four shots on goal in the last 17 minutes of the contest
“I know we can play with any one,” added Coyle. “I would love to see us play like we did for that ten minute period where we cut it to one, for an entire game, that would be fun. I think today we just did not cover the cutters well enough, they had so many wide open chances breaking to the net, we have improved so much, so far, but we still need to work.”
Kennett attacker Teri Massetti posted three goals and a helper in a 20-11 loss
Fueled by three goals each by DuPhily (3 goals, 3 assists), Krissy Gallivan (3 goals, assist) and Teri Massetti, Kennet again scored plenty of goals to win, but needed to lock it down more on the defensive end and more specifically McKenzie Rafferty who posted six tallies.
Downingtown East 10 10 -20
Kennett 5 6 -11
Cougars scoring
Hubbard assist
Healy goal
Nelson goal, assist
Faccenda 2 goals, assist
Kollhoff 2 goals
Rafferty 6 goals
Ambrogi goal
Barretta 2 goals
Goaltender saves-Wurzel 9 saves
Blue Demons scoring
Petragnaris goal
Schaen goal
DuPhily 3 goals, 2 assists
Gallivan 3 goals, assist
Massetti 3 goals
Goaltender saves- Coyle 16 saves
