Susquehannock girls' lacrosse reaches PIAA semifinal
The Susquehannock girls' lacrosse team advanced to its first PIAA Class 2A semifinals after a 15-7 quarterfinal victory over Hershey Saturday at Cumberland Valley.
Trailing 4-3 with 8:40 left in the first half, the defense, along with goalie Sam McGuire and a few midfielders huddled up after seeing their 2-0 lead disappear.
"We needed to make sure we were marking cutters, especially coming in from the top and that we were stopping their fast breaks," McGuire said. "We were able to really talk it out."
"I don't know if I know the exact answer to that, but we practice that. Fix the mistake, make sure everybody is on board with whatever the mistake was at that time from a technical standpoint," head coach Steve Marshner said on the huddle. "I'm sure they're patting each other on the back and trying to make sure no heads are going down."
Just 39 seconds later, Kenna Hancock scored to tie the game at 4. Not long after the Warriors tied it up, McGuire (18 saves) was forced to make a pair of point-blank saves to keep the District 3 champs in the game.
More: YAIAA teams in play for state titles
Just before the half, Rachel Marshner and Kayla Held scored within 23 seconds of each other to give Susquehannock a 6-4 lead at the half.
The Warriors came out of the second half break on a mission, as Held, Gena Speights and Riley Roeder scored in the first two minutes of the half to build a 9-4 lead.
From there it was all about McGuire as she allowed just one goal over a span of nearly 29 minutes allowing Susquehannock to go on a 12-1 run over that time.
"We gave up a lot of shots," said Marshner of his team getting out-shot 25-22. "Some of the shots we gave up we were OK with that shot. She made a lot of close one-on-one saves, too. She's just awesome."
Speights led the way with five goals and an assist while Held added four goals and an assist. Roeder added three goals and Rachel Marshner chipped in with a pair of goals and assists as she returned from an ankle injury suffered in their first round win.
"We've had a lot of adversity this year in many different ways and we are just literally playing for each other," said Marshner of his team. "We have a couple of girls that are supposed to be on vacation today ... but they are here playing for each other and it means so much to everybody else."
Susquehannock will meet YAIAA foe, Kennard-Dale in Tuesday's semifinal at a site and time to be named which has McGuire excited.
The two teams split their two meetings this year with Kennard-Dale winning 15-12 in their regular season meeting on April 4 while the Warriors came out on top, 13-12 in the District 3 title game.
Kennard-Dale punched their ticket to the state semifinal with a 19-8 win over District 7 runner-up Oakland Catholic. Emmie Dressel lad the way with six goals and three assists while Maddie Day scored five goals.