Archbishop Carroll players, from left, Megan McKee, Missy Mestre, Rachel Walsh, Kelly Welsh and Nina Rizzo are all smiles as they hoist the championship plaque after the Patriots’ 3-1 win over Cardinal O’Hara Monday at Arcadia University.

GLENSIDE — For the last two weeks, the Archbishop Carroll field hockey players continued “going to school” after classes ended at 2:30 each afternoon.

“When we were playing (Archbishop Wood), we studied what they did and prepared for them at practice,” said Patriots senior Kim Zamojcin. “Then it was (Cardinal O’Hara) and we knew what they did when they beat us and we had to get ready for their defense. We knew their strengths and had to take them away.”

Carroll coach Suzie Gennaro did her homework and came up with the right lesson plan — otherwise known as her game plan. Her Patriots took advantage of what they had learned about the O’Hara defense and scored a 3-1 victory over the Lions in the Catholic League playoff championship game at Arcadia University Monday afternoon.

The win gave Carroll (14-3-1), which finished second to O’Hara in the Catholic League’s regular-season standings, its third consecutive playoff title. The Pats beat O’Hara for the 2005 crown and knocked off Wood in the 2006 final.

“As the season starts to come to a close they can lose focus,” Gennaro said of her players. “There are a lot of things like homecoming going on that can distract them.

“We knew how tough the O’Hara defense would be. They put nine girls inside the (scoring circle). We had to work hard on opening things up in there and find a way to get the ball to the cage. All 11 of our players on the field had to work at it, and that’s what they did today.”

O’Hara (15-2), which had a nine-game winning streak snapped Monday, scored first as senior Jenna Moran finished a play started by sophomore Alica Govannicci in the eighth minute.

Carroll answered less than eight minutes later when the Lions’ defenders didn’t clear the ball from in front of goalie Moire Boston and Zamojcin got her stick on the ball and pushed it into the back of the cage.

“I was so ready for this game,” said Zamojcin, who came up with three goals in the 4-0 win over Wood at Arcadia in last year’s playoff final.

“I was doodling all over my notebooks in school today, writing words like field hockey and championship. This is the second year in a row I was a starter for a championship team. It’s the greatest feeling.”

Lauren Comly, who blasted a shot toward the goal on almost all of Carroll’s 15 penalty corners, banged the ball off the post to the right of Boston seven minutes after Zamojcin scored in the first half.

Then the defenses stood their ground for the first 20 minutes of the second half. Rachel Walsh, Jackie Krizovensky, Comly, Lauren Wood and Monica Byrne were tough for Carroll and Stephanie Fichter, who made a defensive save on the Patriots’ first corner of the half, Corrine O’Kane, Lindsay McArdle, Alyssa McLaughlin, Alysha Womack and Danielle Massi countered for O’Hara.

With just less than nine minutes to play in the second half, Comly sent the ball on its way toward the goal on another penalty corner and sophomore Kelsey Byrne got her stick on it to put Carroll ahead.

“Kim passes the ball to Lauren and she hits it on corners,” Byrne said. “After it came toward me, I didn’t realize it had gone in. We had worked so hard every day at practice so we would be ready for their defense.

“This has all been so exciting.”

Carroll had the chance to add to its lead with 5:22 left when it was awarded a penalty stroke. Krizovensky, who converted a stroke against Wood in the overtime tiebreaker in the semifinal round, got off a good shot but Boston used the pad on her left hand to knock the ball down.

The Patriots didn’t let up, and their pressure in the scoring circle led to Zamojcin’s goal with 3:18 to play. Sophomore Megan McKee assisted on the play.

“Everyone knew they had to give everything after how hard we had worked for this game,” Walsh said. “We prepared with our defensive skills, recovery and being aware of where they were in the circle.

“I remember the (2005 final) with (Kelly Dougherty’s winning goal) and last year. Each year it seems to get harder but we know how much it means to play as a team and we go out and do things for each other.”

O’Hara coach Nicole Nelson had several players in her lineup Monday who played as freshmen when the Lions defeated Kennedy-Kenrick in overtime to take the 2004 playoff championship.

“It was an exciting game, what you’d expect a championship game to be,” Nelson said. “We had our chances but we just didn’t put the ball in.

“Moire kept us in the game on that stroke, but we couldn’t convert on the chances we had after that. It’s been a great season that just didn’t end with the score being what we wanted it to be.”