Things have progressed more smoothly for Brophy as she has grown as a lacrosse player. This spring, she helped Carroll to a 21-1-1 record and its sixth consecutive undefeated season against Catholic League competition.

For her outstanding skills as a lacrosse player and her contributions to another championship season at Archbishop Carroll, Brophy has been named 2006 Daily Times Girls Lacrosse Player of the Year.

Joining Brophy on the 2006 All-Delco team are teammates Cara Filippelli and Jackie DePetris, Sarah Geary, Jackie Eastman and Julianna Jeffers of Class AA district champion Springfield, Radnor’s Mary Cryan and Kelly Barnes, Jill Davis and Megan Udovich of Ridley, Kate Beers of Agnes Irwin and Strath Haven’s Alyssa Kovach.

DePetris, Geary, Eastman and Cryan also were members of the 2005 All-Delco team. Brophy, Filippelli, Geary, Eastman, Jeffers and Kovach also were juniors during the 2006 season and Barnes was a sophomore.

Brophy scored 53 goals and had 16 assists in Carroll’s 23 games. The Pats’ only loss was to Conestoga, which was Class AAA district champion. Carroll played an 11-11 tie with Class AA district champ Springfield and beat Radnor, a Class AAA district semifinalist, for the first time in the seven seasons the teams have met.

When the Patriots opened the season March 16 against Archbishop Prendergast, Brophy played in a game for the first time since the Catholic League final her freshman year.

She tore a ligament in her right knee playing basketball two days before Christmas 2004. Seven weeks after having surgery, she slipped on a patch of ice in a parking lot, cracked her right kneecap and had surgery again.

"In the fall, when I was still having pain in my knee I didn’t know what was going to happen," Brophy said. "When I started playing, everything was OK."

Carroll coach Lorraine Beers began the season without two sophomores who started the 2005 playoff final -- Brophy’s sister Annie and Gabby Capuzzi, who both suffered knee injuries playing soccer last fall and were recovering from surgery. Beers was happy to have Mary Beth Brophy back in her lineup.

"She ran our offense," Beers said. "She’s a tireless worker at midfield who is smart and challenges to goal at every opportunity. She’s a strong defender with excellent footwork and fast slides.

"I started lacrosse in fifth grade with the Pioneer Quix Stix in Valley Forge," Brophy said. "Since I was a runner, I liked it because at that age we just picked the ball up, ran down the field with it and scored goals.

"The first game I threw a pass and hit (Charlotte Wood, who plays at Conestoga High) right in the eye," Brophy said. "She wound up with a pretty nice shiner."

Brophy’s sister Tricia played at Carroll and was a member of the 2000 Patriots team which lost to St. Hubert in the Catholic League final in Beers’ first season as head coach. Carroll hasn’t lost to a Catholic League opponent since that game.

Jess Brophy, who played in the NCAA Division I Tournament for James Madison University as a freshman this spring, is two years older than Mary Beth.

"I had already started playing before Jess did," Mary Beth said. "I played field hockey (at St. Monica) and travel soccer through eighth grade, and in eighth grade I started playing for Phantastix in summer (lacrosse) tournaments."

In May, she was a member of the Upper Atlantic I team that was runnerup in the National Schoolgirls Tournament, which was played at Lehigh University. Filippelli, Barnes and Kovach were among her teammates.

Brophy scored four goals and had two assists in Carroll’s 19-4 win over Archbishop Wood as the Patriots claimed the Catholic League playoff title for the sixth consecutive year.

"That’s Coach Beers," Brophy said. "She makes sure we get there every year. She’s just an exceptional coach and she takes her players and makes them better. She has us play teams like Conestoga, Radnor, Springfield and (Class AA runnerup) Unionville because she knows we need to play tougher competition.

"We just didn’t show up against Conestoga and it showed in how badly we lost that game (11-3). We let Springfield come back on us and tie that game (11-11). But we beat Radnor and Unionville. The Radnor game (8-7) was so exciting."

"I was going to Georgetown that weekend," Brophy said. "My boyfriend’s sister (Patty Piotrowicz, who played at Plymouth- Whitemarsh High) plays there.

"We had played so badly against Conestoga that Coach Beers called a practice for 1 o’clock Sunday afternoon, so I ended up on the train early Sunday morning to get back from Georgetown in time for practice."

The Carroll players got their coach’s message and finished the season with a nine-game unbeaten streak. Now Brophy is concentrating on refining her skills as she tries to become one of the 30 players who will be chosen for the Under-19 team’s roster. If she is selected, she will spend the winter training before the final cutdown to 24 players is made next spring.

Brophy has the lacrosse credentials to match many of the others who will be at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County for the tryouts next month. She also has the academic credentials to impress college coaches.

She ranks among the top 30 students academically in Carroll’s Class of 2007 and carries a 4.0 grade point average. She recently was elected president of the school’s Executive Board (student council) and Filippelli was elected vice president.

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