TOURNAMENT TUNE-UP: ME girls lax ties it at the buzzer, wins in OT in regular season finale
May 26—A loss seemed all but certain for the Manchester Essex girls lacrosse team in the waning seconds of Wednesday's regular season finale against Masconomet.
The Hornets were pinned down in their own corner, 100-yards away from the Masco goal, with under 20 seconds to go in regulation and trailing by a goal.
Manchester Essex, however, was able to get the ball to goalie Brigid Carovillano, who let go a desperation heave of a pass down field. That Hail Mary pass was caught by teammate Paige Garlitz around midfield, who broke towards the Chieftains goal and found a teammate all alone sprinting toward the goal. That teammate, Meyer Gist, found the back of the net with the clock reading 0.0 to tie the game and send it into overtime.
The Hornets ran with that momentum in the extra session as Hadley Levendusky won the draw to give them possession. Mercedes O'Neil eventually found the ball on her stick and she made a quick move towards the right post, scoring the game winning 25 seconds into overtime for a 9-8 Hornets win at Hyland Field.
With the win, a big one over a higher division opponent, the Cape Ann League Baker Division champion Hornets finish up the regular season at 15-2 and now await the Division 4 State Tournament brackets. Manchester Essex is currently ranked No. 1 in the division and will most likely finish as the top seed, which would mean a home game for the first three rounds of the tournament.
The Hornets needed to make some adjustments on Wednesday night as Masconomet controlled the early stages of the game. The Chieftains took a 6-3 lead late in the second half with strong perimeter passing, smothering possession and aggressive cuts to the net.
After Garlitz scored the first goal of the night for Manchester Essex, Masconomet responded with the next four to take control of the early stages of play. Liza Brockelman opened the scoring for the Chieftains and goals from Jolie Dalton, Allie Baker and Emmy Clarke followed to make it 4-1.
Gist and Clark traded goals to make it 5-2 before Manchester Essex finished up the first half by scoring three of the final four goals. Gist scored her second of three on the night but Maggie Sturgis quickly responded to make it 6-3. Emma Fitzgerald and O'Neil then scored to give Manchester Essex momentum at the break, cutting the deficit to 6-5 at halftime.
Defenses ruled the second half as Manchester Essex did a much better job clogging passing lanes and getting in the way of the Masconomet cutter. Senior captain Amelia Donnellan Valade led the Hornets back line. Manchester Essex also adjusted on the draw as the Chieftains won 9 of the first 12 draw controls only see Manchester Essex win five of the last six draw controls in the second half.
The Chieftains, on the other hand, held strong defensively as well. Manchester Essex controlled possession in the second 25 minutes, but Masconomet turned in some strong stick checks to keep Manchester Essex from building too much momentum.
The teams went back-and-forth in the second half with Manchester Essex tying the score on three separate occasions.
O'Neil scored on a restart to make it 7-7 but Clarke answered with her third of the night less than a minute later to put Masconomet back on top. Fitzgerald tied it again with just under 18 minutes to play in regulation, but Dalton broke the tie seven minutes later for an 8-7 Chieftains lead with 10:32 to go.
The defense took control from there with both teams making big stops. Carovillano had seven saves on the game, including a three-save flurry to keep her team within one goal before the late heroics in regulation and overtime win.
Gist and O'Neil led the Hornets with three goals each. Fitzgerald had two goals and an assist and Garlitz a goal and an assist. For Masco, Clark led all scorers with three goals and three assists. Dalton had a two goals and an assist and Bella Juliano three assists.
