Eric RuebProvidence Journal
PROVIDENCE — The matchup for Sunday’s RIIL Girls Lacrosse State Championship game is set and while one of the participants shouldn’t be a surprise, the other would certainly qualify.
Moses Brown has been the state’s best program for the better part of the last decade and showed why at Cranston Stadium on Thursday. Hosting upset-minded Prout, the Quakers did what they’ve been doing all season — dominating — and cruised to a 21-8 win that sends them to their 10th straight state title game.
“We all have a goal in mind, so we knew we had to play together, we knew we had to play our hardest,” Moses Brown’s Maddie Chase said. “Nothing is given to us. It’s one game at a time in the playoffs, so we knew we needed to win in order to move on.”
The opponent will be La Salle. The Rams have had one of the better programs in the state, but hadn’t made it to the big game since 2013. Getting their wasn’t easy as La Salle fell behind big to Portsmouth, came from behind and took what look liked a comfortable lead, watched in horror as the Patriots staged a late comeback, then rejoiced when Kerrin McGovern won a huge draw and Addison Towey scored the game-winner with 49 seconds left to earn the spot.
“I’m insanely excited,” Towey said. “I’m so proud of my team and so proud of how far we’ve come.”
“It is nothing like I’ve ever experienced before,” McGovern said. “This is such a great feeling and our team is so close. Honestly, the goal has just been take it day by day, but making it to the state title game now is kind of a dream come true.”
The first game of the night was the fastest one, but with Moses Brown involved that's no surprise. Thursday’s semifinal wasn’t a game as much as a business trip. The Quakers have the utmost respect for all opponents and don’t think any win is automatic, but it was hard to image the game against the Crusaders going any other way than how it ended. All but two of their regular-season games were won by at least 11 goals and the two that weren’t were nine goal wins.
“There’s no pressure,” Chase said. “We just have to play together and play as ourselves.”
It didn’t take long for Moses Brown to assert itself against Prout, which was making its debut in the state tournament semifinals. The Quakers dominated in all facets of the game and by the time the fourth quarter hit, the clock was running and didn’t stop until the 21-8 win was in the books.
“Any team we play, we’re ready to play,” Chase said. “It’s just about preparing, going into the game and not taking anything for granted.”
It took a little longer for the nightcap to finish.
Portsmouth, which lost to La Salle in both regular-season matchups this spring, came out on fire as Stella Orr dominated the draw circle and the Patriots turned those possessions into goals. They scored the first four of the game and led, 6-1, after a Kiley Delemos scored with 4:51 to play.
Portsmouth’s next goal came with three seconds left in the half.
Between then, McGovern had figured some things out and owned the draws. La Salle converted possession after possession into goals, with Towey getting the last in the first quarter, two to start the second and after a Maddi Goodwin goal, a fourth that tied the game at six with 3:24 left to go in the half.
Lily Peters put La Salle ahead 1:19 later, Brinley Freitas added another before Portsmouth’s Nora Cooney stopped the bleeding when she rebounded her initial shot and scored with 3.1 seconds left and the Patriots suddenly down 8-7.
“We tried to stay super positive. We didn’t want any negative thoughts creeping in,” said Towey of the comeback. “We knew we had it in us to compete and to win and beat this team. Obviously it’s hard to beat a team three times, but in between quarters we talked about what we needed to do to improve and we stayed super positive.”
The momentum didn’t change with the goal. The Rams continued to win possessions and score and led, 12-8, after the third quarter and 13-8 after a Sophie Melchar goal that made it seem very apparent who was winning.
One yellow card changed everything.
McGovern was hit with a card and could only watch from the sidelines as Portsmouth found a goal, then started winning draws. By the time she returned, the five-goal advantage was down to one and with 1:17 left, Portsmouth’s Margaux Boneu tied things up.
That’s when McGovern stepped up and made the play of the game. She directed the draw toward Towey, who raced up field, listened for her coach’s signal, and then attacked. Towey fired home the go-ahead goal with 49.8 seconds left and McGovern won the ensuing draw, allowing the Rams to kill the clock.
“I didn’t really have much of a choice. You’ve got to fight for that one,” McGovern said. “On that one there’s a lot of thinking because they did double the draw circle … and I knew I had my teammate, Addison, out there so if I put it in that direction, it was me and her with the ball.”
“[Coach Dan Marcelle] yelled ‘Yellow’ and we were calm, and then the clock was running down,” Towey said. “He yelled ‘Green’ and I had it and my girl was super on me and I faked her out and went to net.”
So what’s going to happen Sunday?
Moses Brown isn’t in the prediction game. The Quakers beat La Salle, 18-5 and 17-4, this spring so while a championship seems inevitable, they know they’ll be pushed to their limit.
“It makes it more fun because we have to play competitive and play ourselves,” said Chase, who didn’t know who MB would be playing when asked about a potential title-game foe. “They make us better so the better the teams we play, the more fun it is.
“We’re glad to have a few more practices together because, win or lose on Sunday, the season is over so the next few days we’ll enjoy it and work really hard so we’re ready.”
La Salle will be making the program’s fourth state title game appearance and with three losses in its past — all to Barrington — it wouldn’t mind making the first one that would shock the world.
How will the Rams do that? The hope is by doing what they do best.
“Anything can happen in the playoffs,” Towey said. “As a team that wasn’t that great last year we know that and we’re going to give them a run for their money and see where it can take us.”
“It’s just falling back on our preparation and playing our lacrosse,” McGovern said. “Moses Brown is a great team and it’s going to be great competition, so just play as a team, work together and see what happens.”
