Consistency was key to Mt. Lebanon’s third consecutive WPIAL girls lacrosse title — a district-best eighth overall — on Wednesday evening.
The top-seeded Blue Devils played with great skill and composure throughout their 14-9 WPIAL Class 3A championship win over second-seeded Pine-Richland at Upper St. Clair High School.
“It’s the third game against Pine-Richland too, so, I mean, we know what they have,” Mt. Lebanon coach Brian Kattan said. “They’re really good. Their seniors are tremendous. … But we just really played really, really well today. We were confident going in.”
Neither side could capitalize on mistakes in the first quarter after both sides conceded penalty shots. However, the Blue Devils played faster, leading to scoring opportunities off turnovers, which they used to their advantage to build a 3-1 lead after 12 minutes.
The midfield combination of junior Cali Green and senior Lucy Pryor scored two of the three goals in the first quarter and totaled half of Mt. Lebanon’s 14 goals in the game to pace the Blue Devil attack.
“All our attackers contribute equally. Everyone on the team scores and they all assist and make lanes for each other. I wouldn’t get any of my goals without my teammates, and especially the seniors — they impact our team so much,” Green said. “So, next year, without them, it’s going to be hard, but we still have a lot of good juniors and upcoming underclassmen, which will obviously help the team a lot and hopefully get us back here again.”
Pine-Richland struggled to contain Mt. Lebanon’s attackers throughout. In the first quarter alone, the Rams gave up two penalty shots and took a yellow card.
Mt. Lebanon continued its strong play from the first quarter into the second, with Green and Warhola scoring their second goals in the first two minutes to extend the lead.
Despite losing a tooth on her second goal, Green was all smiles postgame, celebrating the championship and emphasizing her team’s determination, along with her own.
“It was crazy. I got whacked in the face, and they didn’t call anything. I mean, I scored off it, which is like amazing, but yeah, it obviously boosted me down a little bit,” Green said. “But then right after, my coaches gave me a pep talk, and then I went back in and I scored another goal, so it was good.”
Afterward, Pine-Richland called a timeout to regroup and let the nerves of the moment subside.
“I think one thing that we really stress with the team in general is that we play together, we do everything together, we celebrate together,” Pine-Richland coach Miranda Johnston said. “And we definitely saw that on the field, backing each other up, and you know, mistakes, it’s a game of mistakes, right? So it’s just how you react to those mistakes and how you continue moving forward for your team.”
Pine-Richland regained its confidence in the second quarter after taking the timeout. Senior midfielder Cate Gentile went on a scoring rampage, burying two goals 20 seconds apart before tallying one more, a player-up, with about a minute left before halftime.
In the loss, Gentile led all scorers with five goals, picking up her last with just under three minutes remaining in the game.
“I think that she really is someone that people look to to put it in the back of the net, and someone that is really trustworthy with the ball, so we love to watch her put it in the back of the net,” Johnston said.
The teams combined for seven goals in the third quarter, but Mt. Lebanon pulled away at the start of the fourth. Pryor’s team-high fourth goal and three from Grace Manning helped ensure the victory.
“The start of the fourth quarter, we started winning more draws, got more, a lot more, ground balls,” Kattan said. “The more we could spread it out, we knew that we had the quickness to spread it out a little bit and get to goal. So, it was important.”