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Sports

Battle of The Best Ends In First Loss For Great Valley

Two of the top girls lacrosse teams in the state faced off, and Downingtown East edged out Patriots, 9-7.

The Patriots and Downingtown East—two of the top girls lacrosse teams in Pennsylvania—squared off Thursday night at DiSerafino Stadium on the Downingtown West campus. As expected, the contest featured big plays, stingy defenses and, in the end, a 9-7 victory for the host Cougars.

The loss was the first of the season for Great Valley, who are now 5-1. The Pats are ranked sixth in the state by PA Media Girls Lacrosse Rankings this week while Downingtown East is rated fifth.

Despite doubling up the defense on Cougars super-player Kelly Devlin and holding her scoreless, the Patriots just couldn't get the upper hand after the first half ended in a 4-4 tie.

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The Patriots had forged the deadlock with 2:15 left of the first 25 minutes when Catherine Shaughnessy beat DTE goalie Allie Murray. They had scored three straight goals thanks to Rachel Kalick (18:32), Sara McBride (17:07) and Ali Karwoski (16:46) to erase a 1-0 Cougar lead and take a 3-1 advantage.

Linnea Faccenda scored at 12:26 then again at 11:38 to tie the game 3-3, and Ashley Poli gave DTE a 4-3 margin at 6:23 before Shaughnessy's equalizer.

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Great Valley never lead the entire second half. Poli came out firing and scored at 23:43 and 19:55 for a 6-4 East lead. Karwoski hit the back of the net at 12:52 to pull GV within 6-5, and the fun was about to begin.

The Patriots started to control things, and Karwoski had two shots blocked in a matter of second at 9:49. The Cougars (4-1) raced the other way and Mackenzie Rafferty zipped one past Pat netminder Jenna Morris to bring the score to 7-5. Three minutes later, Brooke Gamble scored to make it 7-6. Back came the Cougars and with 2:15 showing in the game, Rafferty flipped home a shot to make it 8-6 Downingtown East.

Great Valley attacked again, but the frustration continued as both Karwoski and McBride missed shots on goal. Gamble finally found the net at 1:29 to get within 8-7 and it appeared a classic ending or overtime was in sight.

But on the draw, Great Valley lost possession and Rafferty threw home an insurance goal at 13.7 seconds. The Cougars prevailed, 9-7.

Karwoski and Gamble finished with two goals each, while Kalick, Shaughnessy and McBride had one each for Great Valley. Poli and Rafferty netted three each for the Cougars, Faccenda had two, and Haley Nelson one. Morris blocked four shots on the night while Murray deflected eight.

Information on upcoming games

The Patriots host Central Bucks South on Saturday at 2 p.m., Downingtown West at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday and Bishop Shanahan next Thursday at 7 p.m.

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