It wasn’t exactly what Keith Broome was counting on, but the girls’ lacrosse coach came away with some solace in that his team survived an early scare before finishing off pesky Wissahickon, 15-6, Tuesday night in the first round of the PIAA District 1 playoffs at Cabrini College.
The Cougars, who improved to 17-2 overall, will now advance to the second round, where they will host the winner of the Hatboro-Horsham – Souderton game on Thursday at 4 p.m., either at Springfield or back at Cabrini.
Springfield’s Maddy Lynch led all scorers with four goals, three during a crucial stretch in the second half, and three goals from Alex Poplawski and two goals each from Nathalie Basunga and Courtney Kennedy.
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Broome came off the field pleased his team won, but that might have been about it. The Cougars are expected to go deep into the district playoffs and become one of seven District 1 teams to qualify for the PIAA state playoffs. Though Broome knows the Cougars won’t be able to get away with some of the things they got away with against Wissahickon.
He’d like to see a tighter performance from his team.
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“I don’t think we played as well as we were capable of playing,” Broome said. “We made a lot of uncharacteristic unforced errors. We didn’t take quality shots. Their goalie was good, but I think we made her look better than she was. We’re very young, and this was a playoff game. We didn’t play very smart. I give Wissahickon credit, they played well and really pushed us in the first half. But we can play a lot better than that.”
Springfield led 6-2 at halftime. Then two quick goals made it 6-4, and the Trojans were threatening. That might have been it for the Cougars, it might have been the push they needed, because they scored eight of the game’s next nine goals in taking control of the game.
“This game was closer than we wanted it, and we know we’re going to have to play better in the later rounds,” said Lynch, who scored three of her four goals during that 8-1 stretch. “Wissahickon was well prepared. They put up a good fight. We have to play than that, and we know we can play better.”
Added Kennedy, “We’re still young, especially on defense, and we’re getting used to each other. This was a nice test to get by and win.”
The Cougars were stymied throughout much of the game by Wissahickon senior goalie Jessica Scannapieco. She made a number of critical saves, as the Cougars swarmed the Wissahickon cage.
“This was good for us,” Kennedy said. “We’ll improve from here.”
