PEABODY — Monday’s game between the Peabody and Swampscott girls lacrosse teams came down to overtime, but it didn’t take long to get it over with.
Peabody freshman Amber Kiricoples won the draw to open the sudden-death period and sent a pass to her sister Olivia Kiricoples, who then fired a quick pass to Colleen Crotty right next to the net. Crotty made a quick move to the front of the net, jumped in the air and buried a shot into the back of the net just 11 seconds in to give the Tanners a 9-8 win at Coley Lee Field on Senior Day.
“It was a great win for us on Senior Day,” said Peabody coach Dennis Desroches. “We really wanted to get a win for our senior Sarah Buckley, and to get one against a strong Swampscott team was a great way to do it. It was in question for awhile, but our girls were able to pull it out in the end. Today, on the circle is where we needed to win this game, and Amber came up with that massive win in overtime to give us the ball and a chance to win the game.”
Crotty led the way for the Tanners with four goals, while Buckley, Peabody’s lone senior, had two goals and one assist. Hailee Lomasney had two goals, Maddy Lomasney had one goal and Olivia Kiricoples had three assists. Amber Kiricoples and Catherine Manning each had one assist.
For Swampscott, Emerson Laundry led the team with four goals. Grace DiGrande had two goals, Reese Robertson had one goal and one assist and Harper Clopton had one goal.
“It was a back-and-forth game, but Peabody controlled the tempo,” said Swampscott coach Al Eaton. “That’s kind of been an issue for us all year, especially against them. Their defense was really strong on us and kept us off-balance.”
It was a back-and-forth game from start to finish, complete with five ties and four lead changes. Peabody got the scoring started about five minutes into the first half when Crotty found the back of the net for the first time. Laundry responded for Swampscott 30 seconds later to tie the score, then it took 10 full minutes of game time before the next goal was scored.
Robertson scored for Swampscott to take the lead, then 14 seconds later she assisted on Laundry’s second goal to make it 3-1. It only took two minutes for Peabody to respond with a goal from Buckley, then Peabody took the momentum into halftime when Maddy Lomasney scored on an assist from Buckley to tie it at 3-3 with 32 seconds left in the half.
The Tanners used that momentum to score two goals in the first 45 seconds of the second half, one each from Crotty and Hailee Lomasney, to retake the lead. But then Swampscott took over for a good chunk of the second half, scoring three unanswered goals (two from Laundry and one from DiGrande) over the next 10 minutes to take the lead right back, 6-5. Crotty stopped the run with her third goal to tie it at 6-6, but DiGrande gave Swampscott the lead right back just 40 seconds later. Peabody then scored two goals in a minute (one each from Buckley and Hailee Lomasney) to take an 8-7 lead, and they looked like they were going to hold on to win it.
But, with just two minutes left in the game, Laundry earned a free position shot and scored to tie the score once again, this time at 8-8 to force overtime.
After the overtime victory, Peabody’s hoping to parlay momentum into the final two games to close out the regular season. The Tanners (14-3) have a tough slate ahead to finish the year, starting with Marblehead Wednesday and closing the season with Beverly.
“What’s nice is that we’re already in the tournament, so we’re fighting for a home game now,” Desroches said. “And having games like this, against teams like Swampscott, Beverly and Marblehead to close the year, that only prepares you for what’s ahead come tournament time. So it’s really worked out well.”
Swampscott (11-4) hosts Beverly Wednesday.
