Duke commit and Radnor All-American Taylor Murphy

Taylor Murphy vividly remembers watching Radnor win the state championship when she was in eighth grade.  The All-American midfielder is now a senior and approaching 200 career goals.  Her focus, however, isn't on individual milestones.  Murphy wants to lead the Raptors to their fifth PIAA title.  "That would mean everything and more, if we can get that championship this year," she told SV Sports' Paul Roberts.  Radnor reached the state final last season before falling to Conestoga 10-4 at Penn State University.  The Raptors are currently ranked #6 in Class 3A.  After coming up short 11-8 against perennial powerhouse Archbishop Carroll on Tuesday, Radnor had another tough test at Twin Valley on Thursday.  The Raiders were unbeaten and ranked #1 in Pennsylvania in Class 2A.  Twin Valley outscored the Raptors 4-to-1 in the second quarter to grab a 6-4 edge at halftime.  Junior Ellie Kaplan scored all four of those goals for the Raiders.  The Syracuse commit finished with six goals.  "She was really good. Iron sharpens iron. She was really fun to play against. She also was a really good defender on me," said Murphy.  Kylie Duke, who's committed to High Point, gave Twin Valley a 7-4 advantage early in the third quarter.  That's when everything changed.  The Raptors rattled off five straight goals over the final eight and a-half minutes of the third quarter.  Junior Anna Reger, a Dartmouth commit, and Murphy scored 16 seconds apart to pull Radnor within 7-6.  Murphy tied it up with 4:39 remaining in the period.  It was her third goal of the contest and the 198th of her remarkable career.  Murphy recently surpassed 300 career points.  Junior Ryan Ertel, who's headed to William & Mary, put the Raptors in front 8-7 with 2:48 left in the quarter.  Marin Mooney, a Delaware commit, scored with ten seconds remaining for a hat trick.  Early in the fourth quarter, Riley d'Entremont fired a pass from behind the net to sophomore Avery Ertel who gave Radnor a three goal cushion.  The (9-2) Raptors went on to win 10-8 over the (9-1) Raiders.  "The Carroll game was definitely one of our biggest of the season. I think coming up short in that game definitely fueled our fire for this game," noted Murphy.  Radnor allowed just two goals in the second half after switching from zone to man-to-man defense.  Murphy stressed that Reger did a terrific job of face guarding Kaplan.  "Our defense, I really love them...they're really all such good 1v1 defenders," replied Murphy.  She will continue her lacrosse career at Duke.  Murphy explained why she decided to play for the Blue Devils.  "Above all, the people there. The coaches, my future teammates were all so kind, welcoming and hard-working," she said.  Before heading off to college, Murphy would love to bring state gold back to Radnor.