Prevails in high-scoring 22-14 game after Winchester loss
JUNIOR GOALIE Mikayla White (second from right) puts her stick up to make a save during yesterday’s game against Georgetown as Kelsey Czarnota (#3) makes contact with a Royals player. Czarnota scored eight goals and had two assists in Wakefield’s 22-14 triumph. Also defending on the play were Madison Guay (#37) and Gianna Tringale (#5). (Donna Larsson Photo)
By JIM SOUTHMAYD
WAKEFIELD — The Warrior girls’ lacrosse team scored eight goals in the first 13 minutes of yesterday’s non-league game against Georgetown. The game was pretty even the rest of the way as Wakefield pulled out a 22-14 triumph at Landrigan Field.
The win came after the Warriors lost to Winchester by a 17-6 score on Friday afternoon at Knowlton Stadium.
Wakefield is now 7-5 overall on the season and 2-5 in the Middlesex League Freedom division. All five of Wakefield’s defeats have come in league competition. The Warriors have won all five of their non-league contests including a pair over the Royals.
Wakefield’s offense was on full display against the Royals as Wakefield took a 12-5 halftime lead and poured in 10 more goals in the second half. Leading the way was sophomore Kelsey Czarnota as the center tallied eight goals and assisted on two others.
Julianne Bourque, a junior, had a big day herself as she scored four goals and earned an assist.
Finding the back of the net three times was sophomore Brianna Smith.
Junior Isa Cusack and senior captain Raffaele each scored two goals. Freshman Julia Brown tallied one goal and sophomore Emily Ryan earned an assist.
“We switched things up a bit because we have Belmont here on Wednesday,” said Coach Cara Luca. “We had players in different positions. We wanted to work on our plays. We wanted to come out strong and get a big lead. We wanted to work on our passing drills and work on catching and receiving the ball. Turnovers are killing us, though. We wanted to play a good game and come out with the win.”
Smith got Wakefield on the scoreboard at 21:39, Czarnota scored at 20:16, Bourque beat the Royals goalie at 15:28, Czarnota sent a shot in at 14:33 and Cusack scored at 14:17. Czarnota then scored her third and fourth goals at 12:49 and 11:48 to give Wakefield an 8-0 lead. Bourque assisted on the goal at 12:49.
Georgetown called a timeout after the eighth Warrior goal to settle things down and the game was more even the rest of the way. But that eight goal margin proved to be the difference.
The Royals got two goals back at 9:47 and 7:41 from Graceanne Conte and Nikki Hogan. Raffaele made it 9-2 at 5:56 before Conte scored again at 5:29 to cut the advantage to 9-3.
Cusack and Vinciguerra scored goals at 2:55 and 2:02 to give Wakefield an 11-3 lead. Shelby Cherwek scored at 1:51 for the Royals and then Raffale tallied a goal at 1:01 to give Wakefield as 12-4 lead.
Conte scored at 47.9 seconds as the score was 12-5 at the break.
The Warriors outscored Georgetown 5-2 to start the second quarter for a 10 goal lead, 17-7. Bourque scored at 24:37, Smith scored at 23:31, Czarnota scored goals at 17:33 and 17:10 and Brown tallied a goal at 15:37. Hogan and Conte scored goals for the Royals at 24:08 and 23:25.
With Wakefield in front by 10 goals, by rule the clock continues to run in girls’ lacrosse as long the lead is 10 goals or more.
The rest of Wakefield’s goals were scored by Czarnota at 12:41, Czarnota at 9:46, Smith on a pass from Ryan at 2:24, Bourque from Czarnota at 1:57, and Bourque from Czarnota again at 10.3 seconds.
Conte scored for Georgetown at 11:45 and then the Royals tallied three straight goals at 8:25, 7:05 and 3:29 to cut the lead to 19-11. That resulted in no more running time as the clock stopped again with the deficit being less than 10 goals.
Georgetown’s Megan O’Grady scored the final three goals for her team at 1:18, 55.2 seconds and 24.2 seconds to account for the 22-14 final score.
Junior goalie Mikayla White played in the first half and made four saves, while junior goalie Bianca Passacantilli played in the second half.
“We beat them 17-11 the first time we played, so it was the same kind of game,” said Luca. “We want to get a win against Belmont, a Tier 1 (M.L. Liberty division) team on Wednesday. We want to get wins in our next two games to get into the tournament.”
Against Winchester on Friday, the Warriors trailed 6-2 at halftime. But they were outscored 11-4 in the second half as the Sachems ran away with the victory.
Czarnota scored three goals and earned an assist. while Bourque had a goal and an assist. Smith and senior Maddie Collins each tallied goal, while Ryan and Cusack each earned an assist.
White made eight saves in goal for the Warriors.
Wakefield takes on Belmont tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. at Landrigan Field.
