By Adam C. Warner
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/27/09

On the heels of an unexpected defeat in the District 1 championship, Courtney Campbell and the Radnor girls’ lacrosse team came out breathing fire on Tuesday.

And as hard as North Penn tried, there was simply no way to cool off a steaming Red Raiders squad.

Thanks in part to a five-goal outburst to commence the game and an extra step most of the way, Radnor defeated North Penn, 22-14, in the first round of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association girls’ lacrosse state tournament at West Chester East.

Next up for the Red Raiders is District 12 champ Archbishop Carroll, an 18-13 winner over Bayard Rustin, 18-13. The quarterfinal matchup is slated for Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

“We took the weekend to refocus and then came out on the field today fired up after what happened last week,” Campbell said, who finished with three goals and a pair of assists for Radnor. “It feels great, especially after last week’s loss (14-9 to Springfield-Delco). It feels good to know that we can go out there and play our game again and it has brought us together.”

Radnor wasted little time establishing itself and built a 5-0 lead just 10 minutes into the opening stanza. With success on draw controls and crisp ball movement, the Red Raiders (22-1 overall) controlled the tempo of the game early, which proved to be costly for North Penn.

The Maidens (20-3) cut their deficit to 8-4 with six minutes to play in the first half, but the Red Raiders embarked on a 4-0 run to close out the period and took a commanding 12-4 edge into intermission. Kelyn Freedman, Allie Martin and Campbell combined to net eight scores in the opening session.

“If we got on the board a little bit earlier, things could have been different,” North Penn head coach Jami Wilus said. “We had three possessions early where we had shots wide of the cage. If we got some scores early and made it close, it would have been a major boost.”

With midfielder Lauren McDermott leading the charge, North Penn made a four-goal run to initiate the second half and cut its lead substantially. But not long after, Radnor made a burst of its own and scored four in a row to increase its advantage to 17-8 midway through the half. With a handful of Radnor players filling up the statsheet, the Maidens dug a hole they couldn’t get out of.

Radnor had won 44 straight games until the defeat to Springfield-Delco.

“It’s nice to get the win and to get back on track,” Radnor head coach Phyllis Kilgour said. “We had a walkthrough before we came over and went over some specific things and they did a great job of executing the things we asked them to do.”

Freedman finished with five goals for Radnor while Martin and teammates Ellie Kraus and Ali Kelly combined to net 12 scores. McDermott led all goal scorers with six tallies for North Penn, upping her season total to an amazing 102.

Said Campbell, “We’ve been working so hard and we want to keep going and come away as champs.”

Radnor 22, North Penn 14

North Penn 4-10 – 14

Radnor 12-10 – 22

North Penn goals: Lauren McDermott 6, Halie Lear 3, Alyssa Culp 2, Macie Hauck, Brittany Hanrahan, Stacey Pellechia.

Radnor goals: Kelyn Freedman 5, Ali Kelly 4, Allie Martin 4, Ellie Kraus 4, Courtney Campbell 3, Sam Ellis 2.

Goalie saves: Lyndsay Hepler (NP) 4; Annie Woehling (R) 7.

Tags: North Penn, Radnor