It began as a trickle, then became a deluge.

Strath Haven just poured it on, flooding the Hempfield cage with 12 unanswered goals during the final 18 minutes of play to rout the Black Knights 23-7 in a PIAA Girls' Lacrosse Tournament quarterfinal game Saturday at Exeter Township High School.

Once those flood gates opened, the Knights (19-7) couldn't find a way to stop the onslaught.

"I don't know what it was, exactly,'' Hempfield coach Liz Hockley said of the Panthers' vicious attack.

"Once they got the ball down there [near the Hempfield cage], there was no stopping them.''

Ana White and Annalise Penikis had three goals each, while Emily Garrity added a pair of goals and four of her game-high seven assists during that 12-goal stretch as District One third-place Haven (19-4) rolled into Tuesday's semifinals, at a site and time to be determined.

Waiting there will be either District One champ Springfield-Delco, which Panthers coach Margie Garrity called her team's arch-rival, or District One fifth-place Unionville. Those teams were set to square off at 8 p.m. Saturday at Emmaus.

The District Three third-place Knights hung tough with Haven during the opening 25 minutes of play, and despite being down 9-3 at halftime, Hockley thought her team still had a chance to turn things around.

"That's doable,'' Hockley said of potentially overcoming a six-goal deficit. "We knew we could come back, but then we kind of let ourselves go.''

Haven opened the second half with a pair of goals to extend its lead to 11-3, before the Knights responded. Auburn Weisensale scored twice to sandwich a goal by Emily Bennett that narrowed the gap to 11-5 with 18:56 left to play.

Weisensale finished with four goals, while Ashley Bupp and Lauren Brooks also scored for Hempfield.

That's when the Panthers unleashed their fury and Hempfield became unraveled.

"We just broke down on our fundamentals,'' said Hockley. "Lacrosse is passing and catching [the ball], and today we didn't have our basics.''

A lot of that could be credited to the Panthers, whose passing game was crisp, defense almost impenetrable, and composure steadfast.

"Hempfield is right there, but I think they just lack exposure to some of the better teams,'' said SH coach Margie Garrity. "Their program is young compared to our [District One] area. They're a very skilled team. I think they're just two or three years off where they want to be. Certainly, we weren't any faster than them. I think we were just a little better skilled.''

That skill set showed in the Panthers' zig-zagging offensive attack that put Hempfield on its heels. It seemed that every Haven player on the field was a threat to score.

That, said Emily Garrity, is by design.

"When we come out ready to play, we like to dominate,'' said Garrity, a scholarship athlete headed to North Carolina. "We really don't care who scores, as long as [the point] is going up on the scoreboard.''

Garrity added that she and her teammates finally put together "50 minutes of intensity. That was the difference for us.''

On this day, Hempfield just couldn't weather that kind of storm.

E-mail: pkauffman@lnpnews.com