LEHMAN TWP. – Three of the Wyoming Valley Conference’s top girls lacrosse scoring threats were on display Saturday when Back Mountain rivals met in a District 2 Class 2A quarterfinal playoff game.
WVC scoring leader Lauren Delamater from Dallas reached two more milestones in her final high school game before heading to play at Wilkes University, but Lake-Lehman countered with its two scoring leaders.
The scoring and draw control of Katie Roberts and Jess Evans helped Lake-Lehman roll to a 17-7, home-field victory that carried the Lady Knights into a Tuesday semifinal showdown with Wyoming Valley Conference champion Wyoming Seminary.
Lake-Lehman handed Wyoming Seminary its only conference loss and will be trying to end the Blue Knights’ eight-year reign as District 2 champion.
Roberts scored five goals and went 8-for-9 on draws in the first half to lead the way Saturday for Lake-Lehman. The Lady Knights (15-4) also got four goals and two assists from Evans.
That one-two punch helped counter the efforts of Delamater, who surpassed 250 goals and 350 points in her career during the game. Delamater scored five times, giving her 92 goals on the season as well as 253 goals and 98 assists for her career.
Roberts and Evans cannot match Delamater’s numbers individually, but they have combined for 137 goals and 70 assists. Roberts pushed her season totals to 75 goals, along with 40 assists.
It was Roberts’ control of the draws early in the game that kept Lake-Lehman in possession and allowed the Lady Knights to score the game’s first six goals.
“The thing that I’ve learned over the years is that if you can win the draw, you can control the game,” Lake-Lehman coach Ron Strohl said. “That’s where it starts for every team and if you can win it there, you can control the pace.”
Dallas had possession of the ball in the offensive half of the field just twice in the first 13 minutes.
“We had a rough start,” Dallas coach John Delamater said.
Lake-Lehman made things rough again to end the first half and start the second, rattling off six more goals for a 15-4 lead.
“The start of the second half, we had difficulties with the draw again, which is really a big deal,” Delamater said.
Lake-Lehman piled up a 36-7 advantage in shots before Dallas took six of the game’s last seven.
Rachel Shook, who had two assists, and Samantha Aben each scored three goals for Lake-Lehman. Ava Radel and Lillian Raczkowski each had a goal and two assists. Mikella Monaco assisted three goals.
The Mountaineers finished 10-9.
