Saturday
April 27, 2024 
The Archbishop Wood and Central Bucks South girls lacrosse teams compete in very different leagues.
But their goals are very similar.
Each would like to climb higher in the standings.
The two met on Friday for a non-league contest won by the host Vikings, 10-8.
While the victory will not help Wood reach the top of the Philadelphia Catholic League, it was a nice win after opening the season with a 14-1 loss to Central Bucks West.
“Our goal is ultimately to get to the PCL championship this year,” said Wood senior captain Tess Waltrich, who plays midfield and attack. “We’ve been working hard at it for a few years. Our coach (former Wood standout Erin Eckert) was new my sophomore year so we’ve been working together for a couple of seasons.”
Archbishop Carroll has won every PCL championship since 2001. The Vikings reached the title game 10 times in that span, with their last appearance in 2016.
“I can absolutely see us getting there,” Waltrich said. “We have a lot of potential. We have a lot of seniors on this team, but we also have a good mix of all the classes. I think this year is our best chance so far.
“We only lost one senior from last year’s team so we’re basically still together, but we’ve added some good new people and I feel like we’re strong. We’ve grown together on the field and off. Our skills have improved a lot. We did a lot of team bonding in the beginning of the year, and that’s showing on the field.
“Carroll and O’Hara have been the top teams in our league for a long time but I think we can get in there this year.”
Waltrich, who was also the captain of the volleyball team at Wood, will continue her lacrosse career at La Salle, where she will major in nursing.
“This is my final year at Wood and what I hope they continue to do next year is to work hard,” she said. “I’d like to leave that idea behind.”
It was the first game of the season for CB South, which competes in the Suburban One League National Conference.
“Nobody wants to start the season with a loss,” said CB South senior captain Peyton Ostroff, who plays defense. “We beat ourselves. They’re a good team, and we learned a lot from this game. We learned that we need to be confident but never cocky, we have to go into every game trying our best and working together.
“We can’t get down on ourselves. We can’t let one loss at the beginning ruin our season. We just need to work on the mistakes and move on.”
The Titans are putting first things first.
“Our goal right now is to really just become a team,” said Ostroff, who also played field hockey for CB South. “We need to learn to communicate with each other and really mesh together and play more as a team instead of individuals.
“We’ve got five seniors so it’s a bit of a rebuilding year but the year before that we lost 12 seniors, so last year was rough but we built a good foundation. This year a lot of our players have gained a lot of skill and confidence. We’ve all gotten better individually. Now we need to put that together.
“Definitely the playoffs are in the back of our minds but it isn’t something we’re even talking at this point in the season. Right now, the focus is on first becoming a team and then rack up a few wins. We need to do that before thinking about the next step.
“I think we have a lot of talent, we need to stay calm under pressure and work together and if we can do those things, everything will fall into place.”
Wood took an early 3-1 lead but by halftime, the score was even at 4-4. The Titans rallied to take a 6-4 lead after the third quarter, but the Vikings surged ahead in the final frame.
Waltrich ended the day with three goals and one assist for the Vikings, while Casey Schuette also had three goals, Cate DeGraw and Hailey McHugh each contributed one goal and one assist, Lily Auxer and Grace Hoeger scored a goal apiece and Maddie Auxer chipped in with an assist.
Sophomore Molly White stood tall in goal for Wood, making eight saves on 16 shots.
For the Titans, Addison Geary had two goals and two assists, Kaeli VanDerSluis and Brooke Cenci scored two goals apiece, and Avery Curtis and Kelly McDonald each contributed a single tally.
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