Wednesday was a day of milestones for Allentown.
The Redbirds, ranked No. 11 in the NJ.com Top 20, saw two players reach career milestones in their 17-6 win over Shore in West Long Branch.
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Senior Delaney Nolan recorded her 300th career point on a goal in the third quarter, while junior Marleigh White picked up her 300th career draw control. Senior Mya Lourenco narrowly missed a milestone of her own, as she needs just one more assist for a career 200.
Nolan finished with a career-high nine goals as Allentown won its sixth-straight game. A four-year starter she has 46 on the season and 253 for her career and is second on the all-time scoring list.
“I’m very excited about it just because it’s my senior year, I just want to go out with a bang,” said Nolan, who had no idea she was so close to 300 points. “It’s exciting, I feel like it just continues to put me in a good mindset and just push me to be better.”
White, a three-year starter, finished with six draw controls on the day and leads the team with 72 for the season. Wednesday’s game put her at 303 for her career. Lourenco, a four-year starter who leads the team with 39 assists, finished with four on Wednesday to get her to 199.
For Shore, which is now 9-2 on the season, the loss snapped a five-game win streak where the Blue Devils were averaging 13 goals a game.
“We knew that they were going to be a super competitive team, but we put a lot of effort into practice and we worked on specific things to expect today,” Allentown goalie Megan Conroy said.
Shore struck first on a goal from Kendall Bennett with 10:27 left in the first quarter, but from there Allentown scored five-straight to take a 5-1 lead after the first.
In the second quarter, the Redbirds outscored Shore 4-1 for a 9-2 halftime lead.
“I think we were excited to play them just because they are good competition and we need that to push us to be better,” Nolan said. “It was a lot of working together and a lot of passing to cutters, looking for the open girl. If we didn’t work together we would have never been successful.”
Prior to halftime, Shore received its fourth yellow card of the game and resumed the second half playing down a player. With 8:23 remaining in the game, the Blue Devils received another yellow and had to play down two players for the remainder of the game.
“On the defensive end we obviously had a lot of room to put some pressure on the ball, obviously we’re able to do that when we’re man-up, so we got a lot of turnovers and our defense did a fantastic job,” Conroy said of Shore playing down players. “I think we did a really good job keeping our composure, obviously things got rowdy but we didn’t stoop down to a level lower than ourselves. In the fourth quarter we made the decision where we don’t need to go for any swings or unnecessary checks and our communication was really good today.”
Shore scored three goals in the third quarter for a 13-5 game after three, but was outscored 4-1 in the fourth quarter for the 17-6 final.
For Shore, Gabby O’Brien led with a hat trick, one assist and five draw controls. Ava Matthews chipped in one goal, one assist and three draw controls. Cami Grella and Bennett also scored. Goalie Sofia Merten posted 11 saves.
White contributed four goals, two assists for Allentown, while Addison Wagner recorded a hat trick and two assists. Lourenco chipped in four assists while Madison Sullivan also scored. Nylah Ladu contributed a game-high eight draw controls and chipped in an assist.
Wednesday’s win pushed Allentown to a record of 11-2 as the Redbirds are 2-0 atop the Colonial Valley Conference Colonial Division. Their only two losses came against Top 20 competition in Westfield and Hunterdon Central, and so far this season they’re averaging over 12 goals a game.
“I think that we’re all a really tight group, I think we’re all really good friends,” Conroy said. “We talk about lacrosse all the time in school so we’re all just really in it and we know we’re a special team.”
“I also think we prepare well for teams,” Nolan added. “We do a lot of talking and practicing, specifically what’s going to happen in the game the next day, and watching film. So I think that definitely helps us to become better.”
Lauren Knego may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @laurenknego
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