ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Marblehead’s Lydia Bongiorno weaves around the defense to take a shot against Newburyport.
BY KATIE MORRISON
MARBLEHEAD — Down by a goal at halftime, the Marblehead girls lacrosse team needed to kick their play into another gear if they wanted to get by a tough Newburyport team and into the Division 2 North finals.
They did just that, scoring eight times in the second half to top the Clippers, 11-8, at Piper Field in the semifinal Tuesday.
The win was made sweeter by the fact that Newburyport had knocked the Magicians out of the tournament in 2014, the last time Marblehead was in the North final. Tuesday’s game was their chance to avenge that loss.
Newburyport, which took down St. Mary’s and Bishop Fenwick to get to the semifinal, put pressure on the Marblehead defense right away. Molly Rose Kearney got the Clippers on the board six minutes in. The Magicians responded and hit the post on two shots, while Newburyport goalie Molly Laliberty came up with three big saves. Hannah Schilling extended Newburyport’s lead on a free shot with 13 minutes to go.
Hadley Carlton finally broke through the Clippers’ defense and got a shot past Laliberty to get back within one. Newburyport’s Cescily Wheeler and Kearney also scored in the half.
Though they dominated possession, Marblehead had a lot of trouble penetrating the Newburyport defense, and Laliberty was nothing short of a brick wall in the net. Carlton scored off a pass from Lydia Bongiorno, and Lucie Poulin scored with just under a minute left to make it 4-3 heading into the half.
Marblehead coach Annie Pugh knew that her team needed to tweak some things in the second half if they were going to get past the Newburyport defense. Those little changes worked wonders for the Magicians’s offense.
Carolyn Arthur made what may have been the play of the game early in the second half when she snagged a pass between Newburyport midfielders in mid-air. She found Carlton up the field who took it straight to the net to tie the game at four. That play seemed to shift the momentum in the Magicians’ direction.
“Our defense played outstanding in the first half, the offense wasn’t finding it just yet,” said Pugh. “Second half, we came out and knew what we needed to change and fix, all season we’ve been saying it’s okay if the other team scores. They’re supposed to score. It’s who is going to play with more composure and get to more 50/50 balls in the end.”
Poulin gave Marblehead its first lead of the game four minutes into the half, and Bongiorno and Caroline Driscoll added goals to give Marblehead a 7-5 lead.
The Magicians stayed firmly in control from that point forward. The Clippers hung around and chipped away at the lead, but Marblehead kept some distance and Newburyport failed to get within a goal of Marblehead the rest of the way.
Carlton scored twice more, once off a free position, and Bongiorno, Amanda Gregory and Grace Arthur all added goals late in the half to seal the win for Marblehead.
“Their goalie was a lefty, and an outstanding athlete. She was reading our shots, so we had to have better shot placement and to be able to move her,” said Pugh. “We started putting the ball in the back of the net afterward. Just small things, making those changes made the difference for us.”
One of the key to the Magicians’ victory was their ability to stay composed and focused in a tight game, and rebound from their mistakes.
“We’ve been here before and we had our seniors, they knew what it was going to take to win,” said Pugh. “(They told) our underclassmen it’s okay, if you drop the ball, you have to get that next one. Yesterday at practice we were saying you’ve got to hold onto that rope, and if you hold onto that rope, you pull somebody back up and make sure we have a new life afterwards.”
Thursday’s final will be against another familiar opponent. No. 6 Ipswich, which knocked out the Magicians from the tournament in the semifinal last season, topped Melrose in a rain-shortened contest Tuesday night.
Pugh is confident that Tuesday’s game will serve as good experience in what’s sure to be a competitive game.
“This game absolutely prepared us for the next,” said Pugh. “We live to see another day and we look to what we need to do against the next opponent.”
