By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/25/10
Shannon Burns scored eight goals to lead Springfield-Delco to a 19-14 victory over Great Valley tonight in the District 1 girls’ lacrosse semifinals at West Chester East.
The victory moved the third-seeded Cougars (20-1) into the championship game against Radnor, a 12-9 winner over Unionville in the other semifinal at East. The title game will be played at 6 p.m. at Henderson.
Great Valley, the No. 2 seed, suffered its first loss of the year and fell to 21-1. The Pats will meet Unionville Thursday at Henderson at 4 p.m. in the third-place game.
Burns tallied five goals in the first half, staking the Cougars to as big a lead as 8-2. The Pats rallied and trailed, 10-7, at halftime, and then drew within 10-9 in a tally by Ali Karwoski (four goals) early in the second half.
But Springfield scored the next five goals – two by Burns, one by Alex Poplawski and two by Val Paolucci (four goals) – to take a 15-9 lead.
“Shannon Burns played out of her mind,” said Cougars coach Keith Broome. “She played the best I’ve seen her play – draw controls, groundballs.
“The key was when they made their run, they could never get the equalizer. You’ve been in the situations when you can’t get the tie or the lead and it’s very frustrating.”
Nathalie Basung added three goals for Springfield-Delco and Courtney Kennedy scored twice. Maddy Lynch and Alex Poplawski each scored once.
The Cougars are the defending District 1 champions in the new format of one classification. They also won three straight District 1 Class AA titles before last year. Two years ago they defeated Great Valley in the district finals.
“We connected well today,” said Basunga. “We worked very hard at practice to get here. It’s very exciting.”
Jess Nawojski and Jill Jablonski each added three goals for Great Valley and Sara McBride had two. Colleen O’Malley and Laura Bigelow each had one.
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