WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Mount Greylock girls lacrosse team Friday jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first quarter and held on for a 10-8 win over Wahconah to even the season series between the rivals.
Reese Raymond and Meghan Lagerwall each had a hat trick for the Mounties, who got nine saves from Teigan Brady in winning their second straight game.
The victory avenged an 11-9 loss in Dalton two weeks earlier.
“It was warmer,” Mount Greylock coach Jeff Stripp joked. “We don’t play well in the cold.
“It’s a good matchup. They’re always well prepared for us. I think they took it to us on their field, and we just wanted this one back. We’re evenly matched teams.”
It did not look that way in the first 12 minutes.
Wahconah did not even look like the same team its coach has put on the field the first five weeks of the season.
“I don’t know what team showed up in the first quarter, but the team that showed up for the rest of the three quarters is who I know,” Kathy Budaj said. “They came out kind of slow. … We literally couldn’t do anything about it.”
Like Stripp, Budaj was talking about the weather. But she wasn’t joking about it.
“I think the girls, on the bus, were saying, ‘Oh, it’s so hot. It’s so hot. It’s so hot,’ and they were just focused on the heat,” she said. “And the first quarter, we just didn’t … “
And the Mounties did, getting a goal from Lagerwall off an assist from Mimi Art to set the tone in the first minute of play.
Adele Low and Raymond scored before Brooke Harrington (four goals, one assist) was able to find the back of the net for Wahconah to make it 3-1 with 1 minute, 31 seconds left in the quarter.
But the Mounties closed the quarter with three goals in just more than a minute, Raymond putting the finishing touch on the run with a free position goal with 1.4 seconds left to make it 6-1.
In the second quarter, Wahconah rallied, matching the Mounties goal for goal, but still went to the half-time break down by five.
The heat broke to start the second half as a sunshower drenched the players for 12 minutes.
Wahconah took advantage of the change in the weather, getting goals from Harrington and Anna Doyle to make it 9-6.
And the visitors then scored the first two goals of the fourth. Brooke Thomas’ tally with 7:51 left to play got Wahconah within a goal at 9-8.
Wahconah then took a timeout, which Mount Greylock used to resettle and stop a five-goal run going back to the end of the second quarter.
“It’s mostly about having confidence and poise coming out of a timeout and a good understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish, reaffirming the goals of the game or the offense in that particular case,” Stripp said. “It was really more about that.”
With 6:13 remaining, Lagerwall was awarded a free position opportunity, and she put it away to give Mount Greylock a 10-8 advantage.
Brady, who made three saves in the fourth quarter, and Mount Greylock’s defense were able to deny Wahconah the rest of the way to preserve the win.
“Their goalie was the difference in the game,” Budaj said. “Their goalie did amazing.”
“She did a great job,” Stripp agreed. “She’s really come along for us. She’s making big saves. She’s doing different things than she did last year, a little bit of maturity that’s showing up, which is really nice.
“She’s the leader of our defense. So super proud of her today.”
Phalyn Renderer had seven saves for Wahconah (6-5), which will look to snap a two-game losing skid when it hosts Amherst on Sunday afternoon.
“I told them, there’s such a thing as good losses, and I think this is a good loss,” Budaj said. “I said, keep this loss in the back pocket. Don’t forget about this game. Learn from our mistakes, what we did wrong and what we can do to fix it moving forward.”
Mount Greylock (3-5) takes a two-game winning streak into Saturday afternoon’s home game against Ashland out of eastern Mass.
Photos from this game to come.
