Published June 24, 2021
By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI
NEWBURYPORT — The reward the North Reading High girls’ lacrosse team got for winning its first-ever playoff game last Saturday was having to visit undefeated Newburyport on Monday afternoon in the first round of the Division 2 North state tournament.
In the regular season, the Clippers won both games 20-1 and 20-7 against the Hornets.
It was the same story the third time as the Clippers won the game 22-5.
With that loss, the 16th-seeded Hornets ended the year at 4-10 while the top-seeded Clippers improved to 13-0.
Hornets head coach Matt Costello, who had high praise for Newburyport all season, wasn’t surprised by the result.
“They have the coaching, athletes and skills to win it all,” he said about the Cape Ann League Kinney Division champions.
North Reading was able to hang around for a short while as they only trailed 5-3 at the end of the first quarter. However, the Clippers outscored the Hornets 8-2 the rest of the first half.
Izzy Rose led the host with six goals and one assist while Samantha King had four goals and two assists.
Brianne Slattery, Faith Newton and Rees Lord all had one goal and one assist for the Hornets. Jenna DiNapoli and Colleen Gwozdz had the other two goals.
For Gwozdz, a sophomore, it was her first-career goal.
North Reading goalie Emma Borland made 13 saves to finish at 4-10 in net.
In the preliminary round on June 19, the Hornets edged guest Dracut 11-10.
“It was a amazing game all around,” stated Costello. “It was a great team effort by everybody.”
This game was nip-and-tuck the entire way as the biggest lead for both schools was two goals. It was tied at five at halftime.
Trailing 7-5 in the third quarter Marykate Lundy, a senior defenseman, scored her first-career goal to cut the Middie lead to one.
That sparked the team as they were able to take the lead and their final goal came when Slattery (three goals and one assist) scored to make it 11-9 late in the fourth quarter.
Dracut scored a couple of minutes later to cut the lead to one but the locals were able to hold on the rest of the way.
Mia Pittore and DiNapoli (five ground balls and four draw wins) both scored twice while Newton had one goal and one assist.
Lord and Audrey Buckley both scored once.
Borland turned back seven Middie shots. Jess St. George and Abby Sancartier both scored twice for Dracut.
