ON FIRE: Princeton High girls’ lacrosse player Mariana Lopez-Ona eludes a defender in recent action. Last Monday, junior star Lopez-Ona tallied four goals and an assist to help PHS defeat Hightstown 15-7. The Little Tigers, now 4-5 after starting 0-4, host Hopewell Valley on April 20 before playing at Pingry on April 21 and WW/P-North on April 23. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Mariana Lopez-Ona and her Princeton High girls’ lacrosse teammates knew they were in for a challenge as they hosted powerful Allentown last week.

But having already faced a gauntlet of formidable foes such as Hunterdon Central, Notre Dame, and Rumson-Fair Haven, PHS wasn’t fazed by taking on the Redbirds.

“We have been playing a lot of hard teams,” said PHS junior star Lopez-Ona. “We had our first win yesterday (10-7 over Hun on April 9) and we were definitely happy about that. Allentown is a really good team and we knew it would he really tough.”

Lopez-Ona helped PHS get off to a good start against Allentown, firing a pass to Shaylah Marciano which she converted into a goal to give the Little Tigers a 1-0 lead with 23:08 left in the first half.

“We noticed they were dropping quickly and doubling us as soon as we drove and I think the draw and dump worked really well, Shaylah had a really nice shot after that,” said Lopez-Ona.

After that early PHS tally, though, Allentown started converting its shots, jumping out to a 9-3 lead on the way to a 14-7 win.

“We came in today and we just wanted to play as strong as we could,” said Lopez-Ona, reflecting on the defeat. “I think we fought to the end.”

While Lopez-Ona ended up with three goals and an assist in the loss, she acknowledged that she could have played better.

“I could have made a few more shots, but it was a pretty good showing for our whole team,” said Lopez-Ona.

“We will all learn from it and come back stronger for the next time.”

Since the loss to Allentown, the Little Tigers have come on strong, winning three straight games.

“We have always played the tough teams, it has helped us a lot as we go into the rest of the season,” said Lopez-Ona, who tallied four goals and an assist to help PHS defeat Hightstown 15-7 last Monday as the Little Tigers improved to 4-5. “We will be sharper; it is a tough to go 0-4 in the beginning but we were playing top 20 teams.”

PHS head coach Sara Doran believes her squad will be better in the long run from taking its lumps early on.

“We have really been challenged; we recognize what we need to work on,” said Doran. “We are going to take that to practice and hopefully that can translate on the field.”

With Allentown boasting firepower all over the field, Doran credited her defense with producing a scrappy effort.

“I was very proud of our defense today,” said Doran. “I thought they played really well, they were crashing well, they were communicating well. We were giving them a hard time. We knew they were high powered going in so we decided to play a more conservative defense.”

Doran liked the way that Lopez-Ona powered the PHS offense. “Mariana is always a threat; she is such a beautiful player,” said Doran of Lopez-Ona, who has committed to attend the University of Michigan and play for its women’s lacrosse program.

“She was going really well on the draw today, I was very proud of her. I said to her before the game that you have got to play a supporting role today because they will be all you and you have got to be looking up. She did that well. She drove when she had the openings and was able to convert some into goals.”

In Doran’s view, the Little Tigers have the weapons to pile up goals.

“We have a lot of really good attackers; it is not just Mariana,” said Doran, whose team hosts Hopewell Valley on April 20 before playing at Pingry on April 21 and WW/P-North on April 23.

“I trust all of our attackers — Shaylah, Abaigeal Ryan, and Kathryn DeMilt — with the ball. We need to be sharing the ball, using all of our personnel, and taking advantage so that when a team is focusing on one of our players, it makes it harder to defend. We need to work on our shooting a little bit, I feel like we had opportunities today that we weren’t able to convert.”

Lopez-Ona, for her part, is determined to facilitate things on the offensive end.

“We have a lot of good people on the team and I hope to have everyone involved and moving,” said Lopez-Ona.

“We have had games where we have been doubled or face-guarded and we need to capitalize on the other plays that we can do. We have really good balance and a lot of players who can do things.”