The only thing sweeter than winning your first WPIAL championship is winning one in walk-off fashion. Senior Caitlyn Byerly provided that for Pine-Richland as her goal with 23 seconds left in overtime lifted the third-seeded Rams to a 12-11 win over top-seeded Fox Chapel in the Class 3A WPIAL girls lacrosse championship at Robert Morris.
“I am honestly speechless,” Byerly said. “I just had the ball in my hand, and I knew I needed to win this for my team. We worked so hard for this. I knew this was my opportunity.”
The loss was the first of the season for the Foxes (20-1), who will move on to compete in the PIAA playoffs.
“We just said that we were going to take this year game-by-game and day-by-day,” Fox Chapel coach Katie Lundberg said. “That is what we did moving forward into this game. We were not thinking of this as a championship game. We wanted to be very focused. I am extremely proud of them. They finished 20-1. That is the best record Fox Chapel has ever seen. Fox Chapel has never made it to this game. In my eyes, they had a fantastic season.”
The Rams came back from multigoal deficits twice in the second half. After it looked like Megan McCrady — a Georgetown recruit — was going to put the game away for the Foxes, the Rams battled back. Down 11-9 with 2:44 left in regulation, Byerly scored her second goal of the game to bring the Rams within 11-10. Byerly finished with three goals and two assists.
Less than a minute later, the Rams (15-4) tied the game on Marina Miller’s third goal with 2:03 left to send it into overtime.
“In huddles, it is one of those things where you have to think best-case scenario,” Pine-Richland coach Brittany Adams said. “We needed to defend and get the ball in our favor. We needed to just stay in the moment. They were ready and aware to get it back if we were down. The momentum shifted in our direction.”
There were six lead changes in the game but neither team led by more than two goals. Fox Chapel took an earlier 2-0 lead on goals from McCrady and Ali Wessel. McCrady led the Foxes with her second straight five-goal night, including scoring three straight in the second half.
The Rams answered back with four goals to take an early 4-2 lead.
Tied 5-5, Byerly’s first goal of the night came with 8.0 seconds left in the first half to give the Rams a 6-5 lead at half.
“Fortunately and unfortunately, we have been in those scenarios before with two tough teams in Peters Township and Mt. Lebanon this playoffs,” Adams said. “We have been down and battled back before. They persevered. They have a lot of heart and a lot of passion. They just worked so hard tonight. I am so proud of them.”
For Pine-Richland, senior Alexa Mellis was the leading scorer with four goals. Joining Byerly with a hat trick was Marina Miller.
On their way to a WPIAL title, Pine-Richland beat three teams they lost to in the regular season, including Mt. Lebanon, who missed the finals for the first time this season since 2013.
“That boosted our confidence a lot,” Byerly said. “Once we beat them, we knew we should be able to win the championship if we just play our game.”