Rustin girls, Marple Newtown boys reach program first District 1 finals

The PIAA District 1 finals on Wednesday night in King of Prussia will have include a couple of regulars and two newcomers thanks to thrilling semifinal wins on Monday night by the West Chester Rustin girls and the Marple Newtown boys.

West Chester Rustin had to twice hold off comebacks from Harriton to win 5-4 and book a spot in the program’s first ever District 1 final and Marple Newtown followed up their upset of Rustin with a 3-2 win over Lower Moreland to make their first appearance in the District 1 final.

Rustin also booked a spot in the state tournament but Marple Newtown will have to beat defending champions and top seed Radnor to do so. Rustin, meanwhile, will take on returning finalists Strath Haven in Wednesday’s girls final. Strath Haven beat Radnor 1-0 on an overtime goal from freshman Tessa Dignazio to advance to the district final for the second straight year.

Rustin’s own freshmen made a big stamp on their 5-4 win over Harriton with Charlotte Destafano chipping in a pair of early goals and classmate Natalie Duffie scoring a highlight-reel goal in the second half. Ava Pascarella and Jenna Kraft also scored for Rustin in the 5-4 win that saw the hosts overcome three unanswered goals from Harriton – including a brace from Zara Burke and a free kick goal from Nina Canter – and a goal to cut the lead to one late by Teagan Heffelfinger.

The play of the game came down to junior goalkeeper Natalie Gionta who denied Canter on the doorstep of what would’ve been another equalizing goal late.

“It was 5-4 and we really didn’t want to go to overtime so I knew I had to stop it,” Gionta said of the play. “I think we held our emotions really well and every single time we fought back, once we let one up we got one back and we kept going at them every single time. I’m proud of my team.”

First-year head coach Billy Hegarty knew coming in that Harriton’s attack was going to be a handful. They beat defending district champs Villa Maria Academy 4-0 to advance to the semifinal as a six seed. Rustin beat Harriton 3-1 in a regular season meeting.

“We knew they had two dynamic forwards and they came to play; they showed you can’t give them an inch,” Hegarty said. “I saw us going into extra time when (Canter) went through on goal but Nat came up big with that save.”

While the program is going after its first district championship, win or lose they’ll be into the state tournament for the first time since the first year of the school in 2006. This in a season where they lost their first two games of the season to Central Bucks South and Council Rock North.

“We lost our first two games of the year,” Hegarty said. “So we had to steady the ship and the mentality shift of just going again and the leadership from our captains bringing these freshmen along, and now we’ve won 17 of the last 18. So it just shows that no matter how much talent we have, it comes down to the mentality, it comes down to the hard work.”

Hard work has been the story of the season for the Marple Newtown boys. The team was mired in a six-game losing streak in the heart of their season with the playoffs out of reach but won four of their last five games – the one loss was in overtime after keeping unbeaten Central League champs Conestoga scoreless – and then pulled off the upset over No. 2 Rustin and the win on Monday night to keep the season going as a 7th seed.

“Guys love each other on this team and every day they can keep this going is just amazing,” said Marple Newtown head coach Joe Depaolo. “They just have this mentality that they don’t care about anything but each other and trying to find ways to win.”

Wednesday’s District 1 finals doubleheader begins with Radnor and Marple Newtown boys at 5 p.m. followed by Strath Haven and Rustin at 7 p.m. at Upper Merion High School.