By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 6/17/23 – Updated 6/19/23
STATE COLLEGE – Ava Bleckley scored five goals and five draw controls and sister Chloe Bleckley and Lainey Straub each had three goals and two assists to power Archbishop Carroll to a 17-5 conquest of Twin Valley Saturday in the PIAA 2A girls’ lacrosse championship at Penn State’s Panzer Stadium.
Carroll (23-1) has won three straight PIAA titles and four in the past eight years (seven seasons). Last year Carroll also defeated Twin Valley in the 2A finale, 10-8.
Claire Sexton and Cate McConaghy each added two goals and Machaela Henry had a goal, an assist, and four draw controls for the Patriots, who are 49-1 in the past two years under coach Lorraine Beers.
“There’s no doubt in my mind how much talent we had to make it to this point,” said Carroll senior defender Meg Sheridan. “This is the third time; we had a target on our backs. I think that put a little pressure on us, but that never held us back from achieving this goal and we kind of used that as fuel to make sure we got here.”
Ava Bleckley scored the game’s first two goals, but District 3 champion Twin Valley (21-7) got two goals from Hadley Munn sandwiched around a Henry goal to pull within 3-2. Ava Bleckley, Chloe Bleckley and Straub then reeled off three goals in 1:08 to make it 5-2 and Carroll added four more tallies before halftime, capped by a laser by Ava Bleckley with 19.5 seconds before the buzzer.
“Our talent is so good this year – and it has been every year – but I think people who aren’t aware think, ‘Oh, you guys win every year, every game.'” said senior defender Ella Wright. “They don’t see what we do every day in practice.
“A lot of hard work goes into these games. It’s a lot of sacrifice.”
Wright smiled when she was asked about the fact the team didn’t go undefeated for a second straight season. The Pats’ lone defeat was to Agnes Irwin, 9-8, in the season’s second game.
“I think a lot of people thought we’d win every game and that it was just easy and we’d go undefeated like last year,” Wright said. “It’s hard to go undefeated one year, let alone two years in a row! Losing that game opened our eyes a little bit and showed us we had to work hard to win the championship.”
The second half started even better for the Patriots as Straub scored off another 8-meter 17 seconds into play. After Anna Givens (2G, 3A) stopped the seven-goal run, McGonaghy and Straub scored quickly to make it 12-3.
Sheridan said the mix of talent and work ethic as well as their ability to improve any weaknesses has paid off for the Patriots. After the loss to Agnes Irwin, the Pats won their final 22 games, including the big 10-8 win over Owen J. Roberts, which went 27-1 and won the 3A championship.
“I think we all work together so well and during practices we pick out each other’s weaknesses and helped each other to get better at that part of the game,” Sheridan said. “We play a lot of 7s and in scrimmages we pick on little things we need to tweak. You can see the progress we made in games. Even when we lost to Agnes Irwin we never let that stop our momentum. Now, we’re here at the state championship.”
Beers said the Pats had a rare combination of talent and tenacity. “This team just played with so much grit,” she said. “The defense has just gotten better and better. After we lost to Agnes Irwin, I told them no one is giving you the ball based on who you are. You need to go get it!
“Our senior captains were amazing – Ava, Machaela, (defender) Mary (Matey) and (goalie) Bridget (Robinson). What a good group. They all knew what had to get done and they led the same way, with actions vs. words. They were behind all this real big energy in June. Remember, we had 18 days off in May (after the Catholic League championship) and in practice we ran Manchesters and played dodgeball to stay interested. The captains really led us.”
Twin Valley lost a large senior class from last year’s squad – the first from Berks County to reach any PIAA title game – and yet the Raiders won the Berks and District 3 championships with a young squad. Senior goalie Paige Borkowski (10 saves), who posted her 300th career stop, said the team reached all its goals.
“I am incredibly proud of this team for everything,” she said. “From their hard work to positivity throughout a tough game/season; it’s not easy to always keep pushing but we all wanted it and worked hard.
Did she think Twin Valley could return to the finals?
“We definitely had the mentality to make it all the way to the state finals again,” she said. “We wanted a rematch against Carroll and we worked hard to get where we were. Making it this far says so much about our team and the accomplishments this team will continue to make in the future. Being a part of this family for the past couple years has been such a blessing and I can’t wait to see what amazing things they do next.”
Archbishop Carroll 17, Twin Valley 5
Carroll 9-8-17
Twin Valley 2-3- 5
Twin Valley
Hadley Munn 2g
Anna Givens 2g, 3a
Meadow Mindziak 1g
Paige Borkowski 10 saves
Archbishop Carroll
Ava Bleckley 5g, 5dc
Chloe Bleckley 3g, 2a. 1dc
Lainey Straub 3g, 2a
Machaela Henry 1g, 1a, 4dc
Claire Sexton 2g
Sienna Golden 2dc
Brooke Hippert 1g
Catie McConaghy 2g
Bridget Robinson 4 saves
PIAA Class AA championships
(The PIAA had one classification from 2009-2015)
2017 Class AA – Radnor 20, Kennard-Dale 8
2018 Class AA – Villa Maria Academy 17, Kennard-Dale 5
2019 Class AA – Springfield-Delco 10, Villa Maria Academy 8
2020 Class AA – No season due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021 Class AA – Archbishop Carroll 14, Strath Haven 6
2022 Class AA – Archbishop Carroll 10, Twin Valley 8
2023 Class AA – Archbishop Carroll 17, Twin Valley 5