PHILADELPHIA – No matter if it’s the beginning, middle or end of a PCL season, you can guarantee a heated performance from both parties involved. This time, it was the girls’ lacrosse teams’ of Little Flower and St. Hubert’s.
Both teams took the field at Russo Park Thursday afternoon seeking their first league win.
The game started out and ended in Little Flowers favor, but the Bambies held their ground.
About 7-minutes into the first half, senior co-captain Casey Brown scored the first goal for LF to put her team on the board, 1-0. Quickly following Brown’s goal, Emily Deorio added a match for the Bambies. With 9-minutes remaining in the first half, Little Flower scored four consecutive goals.
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Alyssa Panei, Brown’s partnering co-captain and Neumann University commit, initiated the streak for her team, making the score 2-1, which resulted in a Bambies timeout. Brown added her second goal of the afternoon and teammates Tess Hopkins and Maddie Burke added their first with four minutes to go in the first half.
But just when you thought LF had things under control, St. Hubert’s tightened the gap leading into halftime. With 1-minute and 48-seconds left on the clock, Ally Bee scored to liven the Bambies offense and teammate Lauren Maenner scored her teams’ third goal with two seconds left in the half.
Goals scored by LF's Maddie Burke and St. Hubert's Lauren Maenner
The back and fourth goal scoring occurred throughout the remainder of the game leading to a final score of 12-11 in favor of visiting Little Flower.
“We won a tightly fought game,” said LF’s head coach Carol Pisacano.
“We have a very young team. Eight of our starters are freshmen and sophomores,” Pisacano added.” We are hoping to play fast aggressive team lacrosse as the players discover each other's strengths and areas needing improvement.”
With her teams’ first PCL win in the books, coach Pisacano is relying on a few roster standouts to keep her teams’ momentum alive both on the field and in practice.
“Our 2 senior captains, Alyssa Panei and Casey Brown have been very welcoming to the young players. Alyssa leads very quietly, mostly by exceptional example,” said Pisacano. “Madeline Curran is a standout freshman with great speed and stickwork. Sophomore, Tess Hopkins returns from a strong freshman season as a major leader and player.”
Game Stats
Little Flower: Panei-2, Burke-1, Brown-2, Curran-3, Hopkins-4
St. Hubert’s: Hawe-2, Deorio-1, Maenner-4, Bee-2, Harrigan-1, Vogler-1
Looking Ahead: Little Flower’s next PCL match-up will take place against Bonner-Prendie on April 5th in Hunting Park. The Bambies will be heading on the road also on the 5th playing Archbishop Carroll. Both games are scheduled to begin at 3:45PM.