By Harry Chaykun
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/18/25
Downingtown West senior Autumn Blair is reminded about basketball frequently when at home.
Her father, Damien, is West Chester University’s men’s basketball head coach and her brother, Hunter, played hoops at WCU.
“I didn’t play basketball here at school,” Autumn said. “There’s a basketball net outside our house, but there’s also some room for me to play lacrosse.”
Blair and her teammates clearly displayed their lacrosse skills in open space today.
Blair, a Florida signee, had five goals and two assists as the Whippets opened the 2025 season with a convincing 15-6 nonleague victory over Archbishop Carroll at West’s DeSerafino Stadium Tuesday afternoon. Carroll won the last four PIAA 2A championships and has moved up to AAA this year; the Pats began the day as the No. 1 team in 3A in the PA State Lacrosse Rankings and the Whippets were No. 2.
West led, 4-1, after one quarter and 8-4 at halftime as Blair contributed two goals and an assist.
“We knew that starting with Carroll this would be a big game for us,” said Blair. “We knew who some of their best players were, but the coaches told us to focus on ourselves and focus on the things we knew we would have to do to win today.”
After Carroll’s Greta Potten opened the scoring in the third minute of play, Sydney Fitch, Ava Findora, Brinn Findora and Blair countered for the Whippets before the quarter came to an end.
Blair got the first goal of the second quarter, then she set up Brinn Findora to give West a five-goal lead midway through the period.
“The coach talks about looking for the best opportunity for us to have a chance to score,” Blair said. “And that means getting a girl open in the middle. Our attack is so versatile, and we have so many people who can get open and score.”
Second-year West head coach Emily Ernest knew that her attack would be strong. The key would be defending the opposition since her backline had only one returning starter from the 2024 Ches-Mont League championship team.
“They did a great job,” she said of the group that included close defenders Lily Miller, Michelle Nguyen, Kayla Rama, and Paige Mackiewicz as well as the Findora twins and Blair.
“We knew they would be facing a great team, and they did a good job pressing the ball. We also did well settling the ball while we were waiting to get those great opportunities to score.”
Downingtown West had many excellent chances to score because of its total domination in the circle on draws. For most of the game, when junior Ava Findora took a draw, the ball ended up in the stick of her sister Brinn, who finished with a dozen draw controls.
“She’s very good at communicating,” Brinn, a University of Virginia commit, said of her older twin sister. “She’s had that draw stick since ninth grade and knows what to do with it. We’re always working together, and this team is working to get the Ches-Mont championship again, and do well in districts, and get another chance to play in states.”
West will open Ches-Mont League play against Coatesville Friday.
Potten had four goals and Claire Sexton had three draw controls for Archbishop Carroll, which hosts Cardinal Gibbons of North Carolina at the Proving Grounds in Conshohocken Friday. Carroll will continue to play a difficult nonleague schedule as it prepares for its first playoff season as a Class 3A school.
“We were dominating (Class 2A), so according to the PIAA we had to move up,” Carroll coach Lorraine Beers said.
“We played a very good team today. We must have had eight turnovers on draw controls and it’s hard to stop a team when you’re doing that on the draws. We also had 10 other turnovers. I’m not making excuses, but you can’t make 18 turnovers and expect to win a game.”
Downingtown West 15, Archbishop Carroll 6
Arch. Carroll 1 2 2 1 – 6
D’town West 4 4 3 4 – 15
Archbishop Carroll
Greta Potten 4G
Maggie O’Neill 1G
Kaylee Clark 1G
Morgan Wood 2dc
Claire Sexton 3dc
Mei Rader 4 saves
Downingtown West
Taylor Bergey 2 g
Autumn Blair 5g 2a, 1dc
Ava Findora 2g, 1dc
Brinn Findora 3g, 9dc
Sydney Fitch 2g
Eme McComsey 1g 1a
Stella Fitch 1a
Lily Miller 1dc
Emmie Bressi 5 saves
