On Fri., Mar. 21, 2014, the Girls’ Lacrosse Team travelled to North Harford High School to take on the Hawks in a nail-biting season opener.
In the first half, the Hawks got on the board first with a quick goal at the 20 minute mark but the Lady Bobcats came storming back with a fast break goal by Sophomore Bekah Riley to tally the first goal of the season, 4 and a half minutes after the Hawks tallied their first goal. In those four minutes, the Bobcats were down a man for two minutes from receiving a yellow card. Once the first yellow card was over, the team served another directly after the first. At the end of the two cards, the ‘Cats kept the Hawks from scoring a point while being down a player for about four minutes. After the draw control following Riley’s goal, Senior Captain Cassidy Jones tallied the second goal of the game to go ahead 2-1. Jones scored on a free position shot only a couple short seconds after the Riley goal. The Hawks flew down the field in seconds to tie the game up at 2. The Hawks came back to score another goal to take the lead 3-2 going into half time.
In the second half, the ‘Cats started off very strong by scoring three consecutive goals to open the half. The first goal came from Senior Captain Cassidy Jones on another free position shot at the 15 minute mark to tie the game up at 3. The Hawks had won the following draw control but the strong defense of the Lady Bobcats caused a turnover and Junior Sam Keesey maneuvered between two Hawk defenders and placed a shot in the top left corner to take the lead to 4-3 Bel Air. Once again the Hawks won the draw control and had a settled attack for about 2 minutes, but Sophomore Natalie Neff caused a turnover and stormed down the field, passing the ball off to Junior Katy Higinbothom who scored to extend the lead, 5-3 over the Hawks. The Hawks then called a time out and started firing on all cylinders; they went on to score the next three goals to go up 6-5. The Bobcats tried to get past the tough defense of the Hawks to get one more shot off, but unfortunately, there were not enough ticks on the clock to be able to tie the game up again. The Lady Bobcats fell short by one goal in their season opener. Senior Captain Lucy Loughlin had an outstanding night in the cage with 8 saves on the night and the whole defensive unit came out of the game with 4 forced turnovers.
“I think our team played outstanding on Friday against North Harford. We played with confidence and our defense was incredibly strong. For not having any scrimmages, we exceeded my expectations on how well the team played together,” stated Coach Esposito about the game. “In preparation for the next game and the rest of our season, we will be working on our transition to offense and backing up shots behind the goal. I am really proud of all the girls and how the entire team supported each other both on and off the field.”
Senior Captain Lucy Laughlin added, “I could not be any more proud of our team and the way we worked together on Friday night. We came to play and that’s exactly what we did. Our defense played phenomenally and our offense moved the ball and came out strong. This was our first time playing together as team, and I couldn’t be more proud of how we did. It only goes up from here.”
The Lady Bobcats are back at it again on Tue., Mar. 25, 2014, at Bobcat Stadium at 3:30 P.M. to take on the visiting John Carroll Patriots in the first home game of the season.