TOWAMENCIN- The North Penn Lady Knights lacrosse squad faced the Central Bucks East’s Patriots(12-5) in not only a conference game, but a game with such a deeper meaning for the Knights, and this was not the game to leave the stands early.

Decorated in orange was both the North Penn field and fans in dedication to former North Penn Lacrosse player Alyssa Oxenford, who lost her battle to Leukemia in 2015. The game was opened by a dedication from JV Coach, Stacy Pellechia, highlighting her moments she shared with Oxenford from the lacrosse team at Pennfield Middle School to playing at the collegiate level. With a game motivated around much more than just the game, the Knights worked hard up until the end trying to tie the score back up, but the Patriots ended up on top, winning 9-7.

“I think we had some shining moments and I think we had moments where we lapsed. All said and done I think they gave a good fight out there. I think they played as a team and did a good job of trying to work together. It was a decent team that they played, but purposely it was supposed to be a hard game. The symbolism behind the event, any cancer, leukemia, or anything is not easy, so that’s the whole point of why we pick a harder team to play,” said Head Coach Heather Mellow.

Within the first minute, after winning possession at the faceoff, the Patriots ran down the field to score. Sophomore Heather Shannon, won the possession at the 2nd face off and Julia Keffer ran down the field to tie up the game. The Patriots scored again trying to keep the lead, but Junior Brianna O’Donnell tied the score back up halfway through the first half.

“I thought we all came out with a lot of intensity. We played for more than ourselves and each other, we played for Alyssa. I’m really proud of us for the effort that we gave tonight and we fought until the end, so I’m really proud of our team. We got really motivated,we knew that we could come back, we caught all the ground balls and we fought for every ground ball that there was. When we tied it up, we could’ve came back but I’m really proud of us, we did all we could,” said Senior Katelyn Phifer.

Keeping up pressure around the goal, the Patriots took the lead again when they scored after the faceoff. Trying to pull away they applied more pressure around the goal to score again leading the Knights 4-2. After a penalty, O’Donnell came back to score again. At the end of the half the Knights and Patriots went back and forth scoring trying to take the lead, but with 37 seconds left in the half Victoria Brauenle tied the game up 5-5.

“Once we tied it up I think we had some momentum going. The second half [East] came out and they scored first. [East] started making fewer mistakes and we started to make more, where as in the end of the first half they were making more mistakes and we were making less. They definitely capitalized on some of our mistakes and that led to them getting ahead by two points.” said Coach Mellow.

Five minutes into the second half, the Patriots scored to take the lead. Keeping it a back and forth game, after a penalty Brauenle scored again to tie the game back up. After a penalty shot and a few nice runs by the Patriots, they lead the game 8-6 Phifer won the next faceoff and made a hard run down the field, passed it to O’Donnell to close the score back to only a gap of one point. After many hard shots on goal, the Knights could not seem to find the back of the net again and the Patriots were able to get one more goal.

“Honestly, I don’t think we should look at it as a loss, I think we should look at it as a win because everyone on the field and off the field gave their absolute 110 percent. We were playing for more than ourselves today, so I think that really helped us and inspired us to give 110 percent. We all worked so hard and played a great game. When it tied that gave us hope and I think that inspired us. We knew we could come back because we have a lot of heart on the team. It showed, we might have been down the last few minutes, but we never gave up,” said Brauenle.