Nation Ford girls claim lacrosse playoffs win over Christ Church

A season of first continues into next week as the Nation Ford Falcons beat Christ Church Cavaliers 4-2 to advance to the Upper State girls’ lacrosse championship.

Nation Ford plays the winner of the JL Mann/Hillcrest game, Friday night. If JL Mann wins, Nation Ford will play on the road, but if Hillcrest wins, the Falcons will play the Upper State championship game at home.

In just the third year of the program, the Falcons are the first to win double digits games, surpass .500 and beat rival Fort Mill. They also made the playoffs for the first time and are now in the Upper State championship.

“We have exceeded all of my expectations for the year,” said Nation Ford coach Tom McNeil.

“Christ Church was a heck of a team,” McNeil said. “They have a very disciplined offense. There is a lot we can learn from them.”

Christ Church were reinserted into the playoffs after losing to Fort Mill 12-9 earlier in the week in the first round. Fort Mill was given the loss on Wednesday after being disqualified from the state tournament for using an ineligible player.

After a close first half, Christ Church tied the match at 2-2 just two and a half minutes into the second half on a goal by junior Anna Kearns Schipper.

The Falcons tried to bounce back after the goal by Schipper, but struggled to convert the ball and eventually had a shot attempt stopped by Christ Church goalie Susannah Pazdan.

Defensively, Falcons’ goalie Josie Perez was just as strong in goal stopping nearly everything thrown her way, as Christ Church had several one-on-one opportunities to try and sneak something past her on penalty shots. Perez had 24 saves in the game on 29 shot attempts by Christ Church.

“She is a former softball player,” McNeil said. “I have never seen anyone with hands as fast as hers.”

Nation Ford finally was able to regain the lead after picking off a Christ Church pass with about 6:30 to go in the game as sophomore Samantha McNeil hit junior Rachel Denney in stride, as she was able to put the ball in the net to give the Falcons the 3-2 lead.

Nation Ford won the face off and junior Marlo Vandiver took the ball 50 yards and scored her second goal of the game just 11 seconds after Denney’s goal to help give the Falcons some cushion.

In the first half, Nation Ford struck first a little under two minutes into the game when sophomore Dayna Weiss scored for the Falcons.

Christ Church came back four minutes later and was able to find an open seam as junior Finley Kelaher scored for the Cavaliers to tie the game.

Rainy conditions didn’t help either team as both seemed to struggle holding onto the ball.

Vandiver broke the tie about six minutes later going coast-to-coast to score and give the Falcons the lead again.

This story was originally published April 16, 2015 at 8:55 PM with the headline "Nation Ford girls claim lacrosse playoffs win over Christ Church."