Late rally carries GA lacrosse past Baldwin

Posted 4/10/17

Germantown Academy freshman Maddi Ota dashes past Baldwin's Celia Page. (Photo by Tom Utescher) by Tom Utescher At this early juncture, Agnes Irwin and Episcopal Academy are battling for lacrosse …

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Late rally carries GA lacrosse past Baldwin

Posted

Germantown Academy freshman Maddi Ota dashes past Baldwin's Celia Page. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

At this early juncture, Agnes Irwin and Episcopal Academy are battling for lacrosse supremacy in the Inter-Ac League (EA just beat the Owls in overtime), while Notre Dame may be carving out its own niche as best-of-the-rest. In games played among the other four league schools, the possibility of a tooth-and-nail tussle exists almost every time out, as Germantown Academy learned during a visit to Baldwin School last Friday afternoon.

After the teams matched each other almost goal-for-goal until the scoreboard displayed a 7-6 edge for the visiting Patriots at halftime, the scoring came in streaks later in the game. GA bumped its advantage to 8-6 early in the second period, but then the host Bears banged in five straight goals for an 11-8 lead with eight minutes to go.

Germantown would rally to post the last four goals of the day. The Pats got their deficit down to a single point at 10-11, then, with the clock showing under two-and-a-half minutes remaining, GA got both the tying goal and the game-winner from Olivia Doody in a seven-second span.

Doody, a sophomore who has already made a verbal commitment to play for Fairfield University, paced the Pats on offense with a hat trick, while two goals apiece were scored by Harvard-bound senior Ali Crump, her classmate Belle McMahaon, and freshman Maddi Ota.

GA improved to 4-1 overall, having won three games on a spring break trip to Florida. After a setback early last week in their league opener against Notre Dame (11-22), Friday's win leveled the Patriots' Inter-Ac record at 1-1.

For most of their scoring punch, the Baldwin Bears (0-1 league, 3-1 overall) relied upon two juniors, Marissa McGarrey (seven goals) and Myla Barnett (three goals). In goal, GA's Zoe Torrey and fellow sophomore Olivia Tornetta of Baldwin each were credited with eight saves.

"We came out flat today, and this is a team that we really needed to beat," remarked former longtime assistant and now third-year head coach Brooke Watson.

Baldwin's McGarrey scored all of her team's first four goals, lifting her squad to a 4-2 lead a little past the midway point of the first half. GA, which had gotten its first two goals from Ota and Doody, had Ota feed from behind to set up a goal by sophomore Cammy Korman (who had five assists herself), and then junior Lyndsey Morhardt (verballed to Elon) tied the match with 9:09 remaining in the first half.

After this, a pair of Bears goals were matched by the Patriots' McMahon and Crump, then Crump slipped the ball inside to the crease for Ota, whose second goal of the day had the visitors ahead 7-6 at halftime. The weather was chilly and the field soggy in spots from Thursday's downpour, but there was only a brief, light spritz of rain later on.

With a relative dearth of upperclassmen in 2016, GA's Watson played a number of freshmen last spring, including Torrey as the starting goalie.

This year, she pointed out, "We have a super-talented freshman class, and they've actually been setting the bar for the sophomores. People are fighting for positions, which keeps the energy level high in practices, as well as games.

"The seniors control things," she went on, "and they have a calming effect on the field with the younger kids."

In addition to Crump and McMahon, the team's Class of 2017 includes Isabelle Jacobs (who's headed for Brown), Caitriona Andress, and Sydney Brown.

At Baldwin, Crump deposited the first marker of the second half to put the Pats up by two, but GA missed a chance to go up by more than that as the Bears survived unscathed when two yellow cards left them shorthanded for a spell.

Back at full strength, Baldwin appeared to take command with a five-goal burst in a little over five minutes. McGarrey fired the first three, and Barnett and sophomore Lila Tuckman also found the net for the Bryn Mawr bunch, who worked the ball around until they were able to isolate individual defenders.

During a time-out, GA mentor Watson explained to her charges the importance of "stepping up more and putting pressure on the ball, because when we did that, we got turnovers. We were kind of sitting back on the eight, and that gave them the freedom to move on us and we got caught flatfooted."

With 7:17 to go, Germantown's decisive rally began with Korman feeding from behind to McMahon, who netted her second goal of the game. On a shot that was blocked, but not held, by Baldwin keeper Tornetta, Jacobs scooped up the ball just outside the crease and stuffed it in to make it 11-10 with 3:33 on the clock.

From near the eight-meter on the left, freshman Maddie Burns (a Norwood Fontbonne Academy graduate) passed the ball farther in to Doody, who shot the tying goal from point blank range. Just seven seconds later, with 2:19 showing, the Patriots were in the lead after Crump captured the ball on the center draw and heaved it down to Doody for a quick strike.

Baldwin called time-out, won the next draw and set up on offense, but then had the ball checked away. It rolled to the crease to be retrieved by GA's Torrey with 1:35 to go, then after the Patriots possessed the ball for a minute they turned it over out of bounds along the right wing.

Once more, though, GA was able to pry the ball from the Bears' paws and then held onto it until the end.

"We weren't always smart about our shooting decisions," Watson said, "but I was happy to see that we're sharing the ball and that a lot of our goals were assisted."

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