Castillo goal beats Hornets
She may be just a junior, but Sophie Castillo has certainly had her share of shining moments for the Parkland girls' lacrosse team.
During last week's Lehigh Valley Conference showdown against Emmaus, Castillo added another game-winner to her total.
Following a goal from the Lady Hornets with under three minutes remaining that tied it 11-11, Parkland won the faceoff and ensured the last shot would come from its side.
As the offense began to attack in the final seconds, a foul call gave Castillo a free position feet away from the Lady Hornets' goal. When the whistle blew, she fired a shot that turned out to be the game-winner with 8.4 seconds to play that propelled the Lady Trojans (5-1 overall; 3-0 in LVC) to a 12-11 victory on Thursday at Emmaus's Memorial Field.
For last season's LVC Most Valuable Player, it was Castillo's third game-winner in just six games.
"We never want to get down to that situation, and it seems like we've been doing it a lot," Castillo said. "I think we get our heads all scrambled in the beginning, and we just need to stay calm. At the end we seem to all focus and have that last-second shot.
"Personally, it's not the place I want to be in, but if I need to, I'm comfortable with holding the ball at the end."
While she was credited with the go-ahead score, head coach John Seitzinger admits the play drawn up wasn't for Castillo. But having it in her hands was just as good of an option down the stretch.
"That wasn't really the plan," Seitzinger said. "We were running a set and it just happened to work out that she was in position. To be honest with you, she wasn't supposed to get the ball in that particular set we were running. But we didn't run the set right, and she ended up having it. Her being on the center hash like that in a big game-it's her third game-winner this year-I'm extremely confident with her being there."
Kelsey Carlon scored her first goal and broke a 9-9 tie with just under eight minutes to play that gave the Lady Trojans back the lead. Sarah Staggard, who scored three goals in the game, added her final score 44 seconds later to give the team a bit of a cushion.
Two Lady Hornet goals from Sami Abel and Destanee Watkins (who led all scorers with four goals) tied it back up at 11 with 4:07 to play.
"I think once we all got our heads together, we all figured out the shots we should be taking and the shots we shouldn't be taking," Castillo said. "So it was good to finally get that lead where it wasn't them right on our tails the whole time."
The Lady Trojans scored three goals in the first 5:36 to take a commanding 3-0 lead. And while the Lady Hornets would rally back to tie it 7-7 with 4:09 to play in the first half, Mackenzie Galli's third goal of the first half gave the Lady Trojans a goal advantage heading into intermission.
"It's great to see, especially this early in the season, to be able to hold a lead like that against a good team," Seitzinger said.
The Lady Trojans will next host Nazareth on Thursday at 4 p.m.