DALTON, Mass. – The Mount Greylock girls lacrosse team Friday used a 6-0 run to gain some separation and went on to a 20-9 win over Wahconah.
Gianna Pesce scored six goals, and Phoebe Hughes added four for the Mounties, who were tied, 4-4, with fewer than three minutes left in the first quarter.
That is when Lucy McWeeny scored the second of her three goals to give Mount Greylock the lead for good.
The Mounties went on to score the first five goals of the second quarter and never looked back in improving to 6-4 with their fourth straight win.
After Mount Greylock cruised to a 12-1 win over Wahconah in the teams’ first meeting in Williamstown on mid April, the Mounties got a wakeup call early on Friday when they found themselves down, 3-1 in the first four minutes of the game.
“We didn’t get off the bus very well, the JV game before, who knows?” Mount Greylock coach Jeff Stripp said. “Credit to Wahconah. They came out ready to play, and we were not.
“So, yeah, nice wakeup call for us, but I think from there on, each quarter, we got better and better.”
Pesce scored first in the second minute play.
But Wahconah then got two goals from Olivia Roberts and one from Danielle Hagmaier in the span of about a minute to go ahead by two.
McWeeny answered for the Mounties, but Brooke Harrington scored for the hosts to make it a 4-2 game.
Mount Greylock then got two straight from Pesce to tie it before McWeeny’s go-ahead goal.
Phoebe Hughes scored three times in the second quarter to help the visitors lead, 10-4, before Roberts converted a free position chance with just more than a minute left in the half to send Wahconah into the break down by five.
After a 5-1 second quarter for Mount Greylock, it outscored Wahconah, 6-2, in the third to go up by nine.
Molly Cangelosi scored in the first minute of the fourth quarter to send the game to running time at 17-7, and the Mounties maintained their double-digit lead the rest of the way.
Wahconah kept fighting, though, getting a pair of goals from Chloe DiFazio midway through the fourth quarter.
And while it still is looking for its first win this spring, Wahconah (0-10) can take solace from matching its season high for goals against its perennial rival.
“We played great,” Wahconah coach Kathy Budaj said. “We are growing every single game. When I think of the first time we played them and our transition – we had transition today. We struggled with the draw. And the draw is possession, and possession is everything.
“I’m proud of these girls, and I said that to them today. It’s all the little things, and we are building on those little things. And we’re gonna continue to build on those little things.”
Wahconah hosts Granby on Saturday evening.
Mount Greylock (6-4) is at South Hadley on Monday.
