EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School girls' lacrosse team avenged one of its only three regular season losses and advanced to the Division III championship tournament semifinals in the process as the host Townies defeated Johnston, 9-5, Thursday afternoon, May 26, in the playoff quarterfinals.

Third-seeded East Providence improved to 12-3 in league this spring. The Townies will play the winner the quarterfinal between second-seeded Chariho (13-1) and seventh-seeded Burrillville (7-7) in a semifinal game next week. For the sixth-seeded Panthers, their season came to a close with a 10-5 mark in D-III contests.

The first time E.P. and Johnston met this season, back on April 22, the visiting Panthers escaped with an 8-7 victory as Angelo Leonardo's game-tying goal in waning moments for the Townies was disallowed due to an infraction.

Thursday, Leonardo and her mates left nothing to chance. The Townies pretty much dominated the contest from the outset, building a solid 6-3 lead by halftime.

Leonardo led the locals with five goals. Arianna Calouro added two goals and two assists. Dakotha Federowicz and Savannah Figueiredo each chipped in a goal and a helper. Sydney Vilardi and Makenzie Ribeiro had one assist apiece. Kelsey Ferreira made 11 saves in the E.P. net. The Townies outshot the Panthers, 19-16.

"We wanted to play our game and not get heated because they are our rivals,” EPHS head coach Stacie Delos said. “We wanted to play smart and I think we played our game.”

E.P. won the opening face off and just 32 seconds later\ Calouro fed Leonardo in front of the net to give the Townies a 1-0 lead. Johnston then had a couple chances of their own before E.P. got possession again. The Townies look advantage with Calouro running around the net and scoring with 20:10 left in the first half to give the locals a 2-0 lead.

As the pace picked up, both goalies made a couple of nice saves before Johnston got on the board with 16:45 left in the first half. Shrinking E.P’s lead to 2-1. Just minutes later, the Townies struck back as Leonardo caught and scored will driving to the net to give her team a 3-1 lead.

“She (Leonardo) is a beast,” Coach Delos said. “I gave her the green light and I told her ‘you need to be selfish and you need to go to the goal.’ I gave her the light and she took it.”

Johnston then responded with an easy breakaway goal that shrunk the locals lead back to 3-2 with over elven minutes until the half. The Panthers continued to attack off the next face off and scored a game-tying goal that knotted the score up at three. As the pace continued to pick up, the Townies responded, as Calouro scored her second goal of the game to give E.P. a 4-3 lead.

“She (Calouro) always has the green light and she is a smart player,” Coach Delos said. “One of the smartest players on offense.”

The pace then slowed back down as E.P. won two ground balls which eventually led to Calouro passing it in front of the net and Figueiredo deflecting it in. Just seconds later, Leonardo kept the momentum on the Townies side as she drove to the net, jumped, and scored to give her team a 6-3 with over four minutes until halftime.

“We are usually a second half team, but this time we were a two half team,” Coach Delos said.

The last couple of minutes of the half were spend in E.P’s offensive zone, but they failed to score.

The locals still had a 6-3 lead heading into the half. Right out of the gate in the second half, Leonardo won the face off and scored, extending the locals to 7-3. The Townies proceeded to earn over four minutes of offensive zone time which eventually allowed the locals to growing their lead to 8-3. All part of a 5-0 run by E.P.

The two teams exchanged a goal a piece before Leonardo stole a pass and scored, giving the Townies a 9-4 lead with less than three minutes to play. E.P. was able to run out the clock before Johnston scored as time expired. However, it was too little too late as the Townies advanced to the semifinals by a score of 9-5.

In the semis, E.P. will face either a Chariho team which defeated the Townies by a 14-3 count back on April 20 or a Burrillville team the locals handled with relative ease, 10-3, on May 6. E.P. will travel to Chariho if the Chargers win and would host Burrillville if the Broncos won.

If heavily favored Chariho does indeed advance, the Townies will have a difficult opponent in front of them. However, Coach Delos is confident her team can make it a closer game this time around.

“It is going to be extremely challenging,” Coach Delos added. “We had a bad game. I think we will give them a run for their money.”

— Photos by Mike Rego