The feeling never gets old for Andrea Peterson.
Twice as a player, once as an assistant coach — and now twice as a head coach — Peterson has reached the pinnacle of Catholic League high school basketball. The Neumann-Goretti girls basketball team made that a reality on Feb. 23 as the Saints returned to glory with a 50-43 victory over Archbishop Carroll in the PCL championship game at the Palestra on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.
Peterson, a 2004 Carroll graduate, had won the title during her junior and senior year of high school. This year, she got to beat her alma mater.
“It means the world,” Peterson said. “We had obstacles all season. A lot of people told us we couldn’t do it. They said we’re too small, they told us we couldn’t do it. They told us teams are hard to beat twice. But I know what I have inside that locker room.”
It was Neumann-Goretti’s first girls title in 10 years, which was also Peterson’s first year as head coach. She had helped the Saints win the first of back-to-back titles in 2014 as an assistant before her promotion prior to the 2015 season.
“It can be so hard to get back here,” Peterson said as her team warmed up prior to the game.
Neumann-Goretti ran undefeated through its PCL regular season before defeating Conwell-Egan and Cardinal O’Hara in the PCL playoffs. And the Saints carried that momentum in to the championship game, where they built a nine-point lead over the first eight minutes. Carryn Easley, the PCL MVP, scored 10 of her 16 points in the first quarter.
The Saints found their groove in the middle quarters, extending their advantage to 15 in the third quarter. But that all evaporated in the fourth quarter as the Patriots came all the way back to take a one-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.
There was very little panic on the Saints’ sideline.
“We huddled up and we talked to each other about positivity,” Saints sophomore Reginna Baker said. “We told each other what we had to do and what we had to do better on and we did it.”
Nineteen seconds was all the Patriots led for. Easley restored the lead and the Saints outscored the Patriots 11-3 down the stretch.
“We tell each other to stay together,” Easley said. “Our main focus is to not fold. We just kept telling each other to stay together.”
It was Neumann-Goretti’s first trip to the Palestra since 2018, when they lost to O’Hara by 15 points. The Saints seemed much more at home this time around..
“We were prepared for it,” Easley said. “I don’t feel like it was that many nerves. A little bit. But once we got into the flow of the game, it was all good.”
Amya Scott scored 13 points while Baker added eight. Zion Coston also scored eight points and Kamora Berry chipped in five. The scoresheet hardly represents the amount of work that the Saints poured in all season long.
“I don’t think anyone knows how hard we worked,” Berry said. “It feels amazing. I’ve worked hard all three years just to get here, and to capitalize the first time we got here really feels amazing.”
It was the fifth overall PCL title for the Neumann-Goretti girls program. A special group of players marked their legacy in the history books.
“These guys right here, they deserve everything that comes their way,” Peterson said. “They deserve nothing but the world. They carried this team. They put us on their back and got it for us.”
And for Peterson, who celebrated her 200th career win earlier this season, it will be a championship to remember. Her players wanted so badly for their coach to relive that championship feeling again.
“She’s super passionate,” Baker said. “She worked so hard for us to get here. She did everything she could do for us. We followed her lead and we won. We’re champions.”
