ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
St. Mary’s Mady Hentosh tries to slip past the defense of Fenwick’s Fran Carpinella.
By KATIE MORRISON
LYNN — For about 45 minutes of Monday’s game against rival Fenwick, the St. Mary’s girls lacrosse team hung with the Crusaders. But the Crusaders scored five times in the final five minutes to pull away and top the Spartans, 15-8, at Manning Field.
Despite the loss, the game was a good measuring stick for the Spartans, who had lost to Fenwick, 12-5, in their second game of the season. While the final score shows the same margin of defeat as the game a month ago, the first 45 minutes of the contest showed how far St. Mary’s has come.
“If it wasn’t for the last five minutes of the game, it would have been totally different, the score would have looked different,” Spartans coach K.C. Butt said. “The girls, each and every one of them, played their hearts out. They gave it everything they could for 45 strong minutes, and unfortunately we got a little frustrated and it got to them, so we need to be mentally stronger and work on that.”
Last time the two teams met, Fenwick netted two goals in the first minute to stake the early lead. This time around, it was St. Mary’s turn to jump out in front early. After Fenwick goalie Taylor Farrin made two big saves, she whipped the ball upfield to clear it out. Mady Hentosh was there to intercept it, and put it back, to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.
Eight minutes into the half, Liz Weisse added to the lead with her first of three goals on the day.
But then the Crusaders readjusted.
“We got off to a really slow start, but after the first five minutes or so we made some adjustments, and started winning more draws,” Fenwick coach Bridget Dullea said.
The tweaks worked, and Fran Carpinella got the Crusaders on the board 14 minutes in. That sparked a Fenwick rally as it rattled off four more goals (two from Maddy Bethune, one apiece from Brigid Waldron and Molly Camelo) to lead 5-2.
From then on, the Spartans were forced to play catch up.
Weisse scored again with five minutes to play in the half off a nice assist from Codi Butt. Camelo responded with 1:16 to go, and Butt logged another assist on Meg Parthum’s goal with 11.6 seconds left in the half to make it 6-4 at the break.
Camelo got the scoring started in the second half, intercepting St. Mary’s goalie Brittany McPherson’s throw and putting it back. Camelo led all scorers with five goals.
“Molly has been huge for us all season,” Dullea said. “She does it all, she wins draws, she makes the defense cover her, and she gets back and does it on defense too.”
A minute later, Butt found Weisse in front of the net and Weisse completed the hat trick to make it 7-5. Fenwick responded with goals from Camelo and Colbi Flickinger to extend the lead to 9-5.
With 8:47 to play, Parthum forced a turnover, but the ball skipped away down the sideline. A Fenwick defender scooped it up, but Parthum was following the ball the whole time, and forced another turnover in front of the Spartans’ bench. That kept the play alive, and the possession quickly resulted in a goal from Hentosh.
Camelo and Butt traded goals to make it 10-7 with 5:47 to play, but that’s when things got out of hand for the Spartans. Fenwick rattled off five straight goals (Camelo, Hannah Durkin, Cailyn Wesley and two from Flickinger) to run away with the game. Butt scored her second with seconds left to play, but it was far too little, too late.
“This one is behind us now, we’ll learn from it,” K.C. Butt said. “The wheels fell off unfortunately, but we’re a young team, that can happen. I still had girls out there, in their first year of lacrosse, playing out of their minds.”
St. Mary’s (8-3) had been cruising over the past couple of weeks, and will look to get back on track Wednesday at Austin Prep. Fenwick (7-4) hosts Arlington Catholic Wednesday.
