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St. Anthony's Kerrin Maurer is challenged by Sacred Heart's Nina...

St. Anthony's Kerrin Maurer is challenged by Sacred Heart's Nina Corcoran. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy

Passion. Toughness. Heart. Typically, overused words, each of which has been tossed into descriptions of Kerrin Maurer.

The image, though, the one worth those words and 1,000 synonyms, came April 7 of last year: Maurer limping onto the field, a last-minute start, headstrong and defiant of her pain.

A non-league high school lacrosse game isn't quite Game 7 of the 1970 NBA Finals, but to the St. Anthony's girls lacrosse team, it was a Willis Reed moment. The Knicks center played with a torn thigh muscle; the Friars attack was less than four months removed from a car accident, not fully recovered from a fractured left hip and right ankle.

"I wasn't sure whether to start her," Friars coach Corinne Broesler said.

"We didn't know what to expect," teammate Shanna Brady added.

Eight goals.

After missing St. Anthony's first three games, Maurer led the Friars to a 15-14 triple-overtime victory over Our Lady of Good Counsel, a nationally ranked Maryland powerhouse.

"When the accident happened, we were all scared," Brady said, "then to see her come back like that was uplifting."

Maurer couldn't put much pressure on her right leg, let alone run full speed but, "I wanted to win so badly," she said. "I knew my body might not have been ready, but I was mentally."

So it's been for much of Maurer's athletic career. For what she may lack physically, the senior has more than made up for in guile and grit.

Maurer, admittedly, is far from the most gifted. But she has led the volleyball team to two state titles; last month she led the basketball team to its first league crown since 1988. And last year, despite the injuries, she managed 59 goals and propelled the lacrosse team to a third straight Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA championship and was named a first-team All-American.

"If I don't have as much talent or skill as other players," said the Duke-bound Maurer, "maybe if I have more heart I can come out on top."

Broesler described her as "a warrior . . . One of the smartest, toughest kids I've ever met."

Teammate Lauren Schwalje, who's known Maurer since second grade, laughed and shook her head when asked about Maurer's competitiveness. "Oh, yeah," she said.

It's well known.

Maurer isn't sure where that drive comes from, but it certainly was fueled by having a brother, Andrew, who is seven years older. She got into lacrosse because he was involved, striven to excel because he did. She begged him to practice with her in the backyard, she said, "so I'd be defended by someone bigger and stronger than me."

The challenge now is meeting expectations and withstanding all that comes with St. Anthony's being ranked No. 1 by ESPN Rise. To that, Maurer says simply, "It's the ranking at the end of the season that matters."

Her message to the team is this: "take nothing for granted," and "every second counts." On the field, and in life.

She always had exhibited leadership skills, Schwalje said, but they've amplified since the accident on Jan. 21, 2010.

Maurer was a passenger in a car with four teammates headed to practice when another vehicle collided with theirs on Route 110 in Huntington. The others were relatively unscathed, but Maurer's injuries required surgery and a recovery process she described as "torture."

"I never thought all that would happen to me," Maurer said. "But I knew if I could get over that, I'd be a better person and player for it."

With more passion, toughness and heart. Indeed, break out the cliched sports terms for Maurer. They do apply.

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