Sachems on top of the hill
girls' lacrosse
No. 9 Winchester 16, No. 11 Hopkinton 11
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HOPKINTON -- Recalling last year's battle with Winchester, Hopkinton girls' lacrosse coach Jodi Dolan opined that her squad, "never got off the bus," as part of an ultra-lopsided 18-5 loss on the road.
The Hillers couldn't change the result this spring, but they sure made it difficult for Winchester to get back on its own bus.
Hopkinton produced a feverish second-half rally to trim a seven-goal deficit, breathing some excitement into the final moments before visiting Winchester emerged with a 16-11 triumph.
Notre Dame-bound Meg Sullivan scored six times for the Sachems, while junior Caroline Martignetti added five more tallies to pace the offensive attack.
"I think that's something with a young team, we've been having issues with maintaining (a lead)," said Winchester coach Suzanne Ontso. "We did a nice job of getting our composure back. Hopkinton's an explosive team, they can rattle of four or five goals. I thought (Winchester netminder) Chelsea Osborne made some nice saves in the second half that really set the tone for us."
Winchester (5-0-2) struck for six of the game's first seven goals and led, 8-4, at the intermission. The Sachems looked to be pulling away by scoring four of the first five goals following the break, but Hopkinton (6-2-1) showed resiliency.
Trailing, 14-6, with 8:58 remaining, the Hillers found the twine five times over the next 5:28, pulling within four goals on two occasions. But mental mistakes and tough breaks plagued Hopkinton on the day and the Hillers never crawled any closer.
"We made some mental errors and we turned the ball over too much," said Dolan. "But I'm proud of my girls. We didn't give up. We just kept chipping away at the lead, we starting passing the ball and winning draws. We played smarter.
"Winchester is a lot like Westwood. They pressure very hard with the midfield trap. I thought we handled it pretty well. We didn't turn it over there too much and we showed patience in swinging it back around and bringing our goalie into the breakout. I felt like on offense, they knocked down a lot of passes and we had calls that... I don't know. We were aggressive and that's the way we play. We didn't get the calls today. Every time we had some momentum, we seemed to get a call (against us)."
Winchester capitalized on each of those opportunities, seemingly scoring big goals whenever Hopkinton started to rally.
"We had to get it together," said Sullivan. "We needed to score those two finals goals at the end, start burying those goals, and that's what we did."
Lauren Sullivan added three goals for Winchester, while Ontso saved some lofty praise for Kelsey Kinton, who won a number of ground balls in the defensive end and drew a tough assignment in Hopkinton's Julie Showalter.
Devon Gibney finished with a team-high four goals for Hopkinton, while Showalter added three more. Brooke Pettengill and Jamie Dolan had two goals apiece for the Hillers.
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- Bob Holmes: A Reading resident (Go Rockets!) and Boston College graduate, Holmes is the Boston Globe High School Sports Editor. We remind you now that his weekly picks are often made in jest so everyone just calm down when he picks against Everett for 11 straight weeks.
- Mike Carraggi: An Everett native (Go Tide!), Mike attends Eastern Nazarene college and is entering his second year with the Globe. He'll focus on Division 1 this fall, which means he'll spend a lot of time in his hometown, which Forsberg thinks is cool because the Tide have that Fried Dough cart.
- Emily Wright: A Hyannis native (Go Barnstable Red Raiders!), Emily is a senior at Emerson College and has been with the Globe since the end of July. She'll cover Division 1A and will be the first intern we've trusted to navigate her way to Dennis-Yarmouth or any other school on the Cape.
- Mike Grossi: A Lexington native (Go Minutemen!), Mike attends Northeastern and has been with the Globe for two months. He'll cover Division 2 and 2A and unsuccessfully lobbied to include Lexington in the preseason Top 20.
- Jonathan Raymond: A native of Benicia, Calif. (a suburb of San Francisco), Jonathan attends Northeastern and has been working at the Globe since the end of June. He will be focusing on Division 3 and is likely woefully underprepared for covering a game in a foot of snow.
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