Twin Valley advances to PIAA Class 2A girls lacrosse final with semifinal win over Bishop Shanahan

Jun. 13—WEST CHESTER — It's been said plenty of times that defense wins championships.

Well, defense won a PIAA girls lacrosse semifinal on Tuesday at West Chester Henderson High School as Twin Valley held on for a 6-5 win over Bishop Shanahan to the Class 2A final for the second straight season.

"This was definitely a defensive day; I credit our defense for winning this game and Paige (Borkowski)," Raiders coach Courtney Kaplan said. "I think they were dialed in there. Our 1-v-1 defense was awesome, and we were sliding to double at the right times. I think that pressure was really good.

"I just think defensively we had players marking certain players and I think that worked in our benefit. And then our crease defense down there when they would run the wheel was awesome. I thought they did a really nice job there too."

The win gives Twin Valley a shot at redemption as it will face Archbishop Carroll (22-1), the defending and District 12 champion that defeated Mount Saint Joseph 20-5 earlier Tuesday, on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Penn State's Panzer Stadium. The Raiders (21-6) fell to the Patriots 10-8 in last year's final.

"You work this hard, especially when you have a lead like that, you don't want to give it up at the last minute," Kaplan said." "It's not acceptable in anybody's brain; they definitely wanted to get back to the finals."

Twin Valley needed every bit of defensive playmaking to preserve the win while holding a one-goal lead during the final six minutes.

Ava Mullen's second goal of the game following a penalty restart brought the Eagle within one with six minutes left. From there, the Raiders buckled down and limited Bishop Shanahan's clear looks on goal through successful marking and defensive movements.

Though the promising looks were few, the Eagles did not go down quietly.

With 2:20 left, Borkowski, the reigning Berks Player of the Year, made a clutch save in front of goal.

After a Twin Valley turnover near midfield with 1:12 left, Borkowski was forced to make another save with a little over 30 seconds remaining. She finished with nine saves.

"Our defense was communicating a lot," Borkowski said. "They were very locked in on their marks and holding it together really well and (were) super locked in on that moment. It was just adrenaline rushing through me and I just wanted to get the ball out of the cage."

Though Bishop Shanahan had the ball during the closing seconds, the Raiders were able to get a stick on and block the Eagles' final shot with 17 seconds to go and held on for the victory.

"There's a lot of nerves that comes with any high end game like this and it's just overpowering those nerves with excitement and adrenaline, and your motivation to win this for your team; that's what overrides it," Borkowski said.

On the offensive end, Anna Givens scored a game-high three goals, all in the first half to help Twin Valley establish a 5-2 lead at the half. Givens scored her first goal with 10:33 remaining in the first half to level the scoreboard at 2-2. She scored a little over a minute later with 9:23 left to give the Raiders the lead and once more with 6:36 remaining to close out the first-half scoring.

Samantha Rhoads scored the first goal of the game for Twin Valley and Kaitlyn Davis scored with 8:14 remaining in the opening 25 minutes to make it 4-2.

Chelsea Hurley and Jessica Robinette each had an assist for the Raiders.

"You play until you lose or you win at all, and we really wanted to get to that next step we need for redemption from last year," Givens said. "So getting there, (we were) obviously very nervous and just wanted to do it for our team.

"I think when we pulled the ball out and were starting to get more calm, we looked for the open person and that's when we really scored most of the time. We work together and we always look for that open girl. The communication at the end of the season has really heightened and that's really what is helping us win a lot of games."

In the second half, Bishop Shanhan scored first with Mullen's first goal just over a minute in. Kylie Duke responded shortly after to give Twin Valley a 6-3 lead with 20:16 to go.

Amelia Benner made it 6-4 for the Eagles with 11:15 to go, though Borkowski made three saves leading up to the goal. Borkowski had three saves in the first half and six in the second.

"We want more shiny medals," Givens said regarding the championship matchup. "So we really got to focus on that, work together and break it down so that we can win."