Springfield Stumbles in District Semifinals

There is one thing about girls’ lacrosse coach Keith Broome—he doesn’t hold back. If one of his players does something well, Broome will be the first to boisterously compliment them. When he sees his team not playing the way it could play … well. It’s why Broome wore a stern look as he walked off the West Chester Henderson field Tuesday afternoon.

Broome just finished watching the Cougars succumb to the PIAA District 1’s top-seeded team, Downingtown East, 14-8, in the district semifinals. Springfield, which has already qualified for a state playoff berth, will now play the loser of the Garnet Valley-Great Valley game for third place in the district on Thursday at West Chester East at 5:45 p.m.

It didn’t bother Broome that the Cougars lost to a quality team, as much as it irked him how his team lost, at times getting outhustled on groundballs and allowing Downingtown East second- and third-shot opportunities.

Downingtown East entered the game 20-1, riding an 18-game winning streak with stars like Kelly Devlin, Ashley Poli and goalie Allie Murray. Springfield countered with a youthful team, speckled with freshmen and sophomores in crucial areas.

The Cougars fell to 19-3 overall, their 10-game winning streak snapped. Springfield led once, 1-0, then stayed close to Downingtown East, matching it goal-for-goal, until Downingtown East went on a five-goal spree to take control of the game and build an 11-5 lead.

Downingtown East used seamless transition to wend its way through the Cougars’ defense.

“It was a very pretty thing to watch, unfortunately, it was the other team doing the scoring,” Broome said. “Downingtown East is a very, very good team, and Devlin is a very good player. Their goalie [Murray] is also very good, but we made her look better than what she was taking high shots right on her stick.

“The bottom line is, we didn’t play well, not to the level we can play. Not playing to our capabilities, making some mistakes, and doing it against a very good team like that, that’s a bad combination. The things we worked on practice we didn’t utilize in the game, and I know my team is better than that. That’s what bothers me, and should bother the girls, if they played the way they could play, we could have beaten them.”

Afterwards, Broome addressed his team, stressing the importance of how quickly a high school sports career can go in the blink of an eye. That each opportunity against a quality team needs to be savored and exhausted.

“The good things is that the mistakes we made are correctable,” said Broome, who cited the play of freshmen Emily Verica and Aly Gormley as positive points in a tough loss. “Can we beat Downingtown East, yes, I think we can. Would we have to play an A-game with hardly any mistakes to do that, most definitely. We got beat today on ground balls and got out-hustled. We hit three posts and didn’t shoot the ball well. We came out slow and didn’t catch well, either.

“I hope the girls learned that when they walk on the field, with Springfield spelled across their jersey, they play like Springfield. They come out ready to play. I hope they learned it’s not fun losing.”