Lisa Malloy knows how it feels to win a championship.
She won a state title in 2005 playing field hockey at New Egypt, then had a chance to win as a coach when the Allentown girls lacrosse team advanced to the Group 2 final in 2013 with a record of 22-1, but fell to Summit.
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Malloy took that experience and passion and has put it into being the head girls lacrosse coach at her alma mater for the last nine years, but the Warriors never enjoyed that level of success.
Until this year.
After a 13-2 win over Manchester Township on Thursday afternoon, New Egypt remained undefeated at 10-0 and won the Shore Conference Independence Division title with a record of 8-0. It was the first division title in program history for the Warriors.
“It feels really great to be a part of a winning season and a winning program,” Malloy said. “Haven’t had it since I’ve started coaching at New Egypt. I’m an alumni of New Egypt, so that’s where my passion starts. I was a state champion for the field hockey team back in 2005, we had some great athletics back in the day. We’re small and we’re trying to bring it back.”
Malloy said that New Egypt had 20 incoming seniors prior to the 2020 season, which was cancelled due to COVID. Then last year, Kayla Adam, a Saint Francis University commit who finished her career with 160 goals, 208 points, 191 ground balls and 137 draw controls, was lost three games into the season with an injury.
“I’ve coached for a long time but I’ve never really seen the success,” Malloy said.
Prior to this season, New Egypt played in the Burlington County Scholastic League. According to Malloy, the logistics of playing in such a small conference weren’t beneficial to the program, so the Warriors picked up and moved over to the much larger Shore Conference.
Led by junior Madison Adam, New Egypt is averaging 13 goals a game and has allowed just 50 through its first 10 games.
“We are honestly such a close-knit family, we’ve all just been having fun with each other, enjoying practices and just hanging out,” New Egypt senior Kelly Thoens said. “As a family we’ve become closer, our bond is good, so when we come to games our communication is better than it usually is.”
“We all just love each other so much so it’s easy to play together,” junior goalie Abby Melchior said. “We’ve come such a long way.”
Adam leads the team in every category with 69 goals, 18 assists, 53 ground balls, 65 draw controls and 26 forced turnovers. A three-year starter she stands at 243 career goals, 309 points, 199 ground balls, 222 draw controls and 54 forced turnovers.
On Thursday, she led the Warriors with five goals and added two assists and two draw controls.
“For me personally, I knew no matter what I was not letting us lose this game,” said Adam, who is committed to Duquesne. “This division win has been in our minds for years now, this is the first time we’ve ever won the division and I knew that we were not going to let this team beat us because that was our goal this whole year.”
Adam scored the first four goals of the game, and a goal from Thoens put the Warriors ahead 5-0 after the first quarter. New Egypt led 8-0 at the half and 12-1 after the third quarter.
Manchester Township, which is now 6-4 and 6-1 in the division, was held to its lowest goal total of the season.
“We did great, we communicated a lot, there were sometimes where it was a little iffy but we played great as a team,” Melchior said of her defense. “I think I did ok, I think some things could have been better but that could be said about every game.”
Thoens finished with a hat trick and two draw controls for New Egypt, while Aimee Kovacs added two goals and two draw controls. Lindsey Romano scored twice and Lucia Sloan chipped in a goal. Melchior finished with seven saves.
Riley McGuire recorded one goal and three draw controls for Manchester Township, and Riley Hayes also scored.
“It’s awesome, I think it also brings a lot of energy, every day in practice we have more energy,” Adam said of New Egypt’s success this season. “We want to be there because we know that we’re doing good this season as a team and we want to continue that.”
The Warriors have finished division play, and have seven regular-season games remaining as well as the Shore Conference Tournament. With its first division title secured, New Egypt plans to ride this wave of momentum as far as it can.
“I think this year we just have a better work ethic, we want to win,” Adam said. “We have the drive and it’s working, so we’re going to keep that up.”
“It feels amazing, this is the first time in our whole school lacrosse has won the division,” Thoens said. “We’re a legacy now.”
Lauren Knego may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @laurenknego
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