Archbishop Carroll’s field hockey team captured a 2-1 victory over Cardinal O’Hara on Wednesday, which put the Patriots in first place in the Philadelphia Catholic League.

The Lions led 1-0 in the first quarter after a goal tipped in by senior Mia Scarduzio. At the end of the first quarter, Carroll was dominating offensively but couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net. 

The second quarter was a constant battle between both teams. Carroll’s few breakaways were stopped by O’Hara’s defense. There were corners on both ends of the field but neither team executed. The score remained 1-0 in O’Hara’s favor at the end of the first half. 

When O’Hara was tired, Carroll let their speed shine. The Patriots did not stop hustling regardless of the score. 

“I felt like we didn’t get down on ourselves as we did last week in our game versus Notre Dame Academe,” said right forward Sienna Golden, a sophomore. “We’ve come back from a situation like this being down more than one goal so I knew we had it in us to keep pushing when we were tired.”

Junior Cate McConaghy was a huge contributor in the midfield. Offensively she got the ball up the field efficiently, creating foul after foul. Defensively she did a terrific job reading the Lion’s balls off their free hits, preventing them from getting down the field onto Carroll’s defensive half. 

O’Hara had possession starting the second half; however, that didn’t last long. A defensive penalty in the circle resulted in a corner for the Patriots. Senior Lydia Maione inserted a long ball to the top of the circle received cleanly by junior Cortland Schumacher who launched a bomb tipped in by sophomore Sienna Golden to tie it 1-1 early in the third quarter. 

The Patriots had to figure out a way to stay in the game playing at least one player down for the majority of the fourth quarter because of yellow cards. Carroll remained down two players for a period of time with six minutes to go in the final quarter because of overlapping yellow cards. 

With three minutes remaining, Archbishop Carroll’s yellow cards were released. Grace O’Neill sent a cross ball into the circle from the right side of the field, which was deflected off Golden, and tipped by senior Shannon Wood to go ahead 2-1. Had it not been for freshman goalie Reilly McMenaman coming up with nine saves, the Patriots would not have been in that position. 

“I wasn’t nervous,” defender Schumacher said. “I was confident that my teammates would focus on the little things. We have worked so hard this season to stay marked up and have our sticks down in the circle. I believe when we do the little things right we’ll have big things come easier to us.”