Emily Foley and Grace Hinkle led the way in scoring March 25 to propel the NDCL girls lacrosse team to a 12-5 victory over the Mentor Cardinals.
Match photos click here.
Emily Foley and Grace Hinkle led the way in scoring March 25 to propel the NDCL girls lacrosse team to a 12-5 victory over the Mentor Cardinals.
The Cardinals got off to a fast start as they took a 2-0 lead over the Lions.
However, in extremely quick fashion, the Lions netted two goals within the span of 12 seconds.
First, Foley scored with 8:35 left in the first half.
Almost immediately after that, the Lions won the draw, and drove right down the field.
Then Foley, again, put the ball in the back of Mentor’s net to tie the score at two with 8:23 left in the first half.
“We were down 2-0 and I had that first goal and I was excited,” Foley said. “I knew what we needed to do and just took it to the goal again.”
Not long after that, though, a rain delay lasted close to 45 minutes.
“It was a pretty rough start,” said NDCL Head Coach Alexandra Manfroni. “The girls really showed up in the second half. We really worked hard in the corner sets. The possession off the draw was huge for us; we scored a lot of our goals off the draw.”
Foley acknowledged a little weather-related, weekend-related fatigue.
“We started out slow; it’s Saturday, it’s the weekend,” she said. “I think we were really affected by the wind, and the conditions made it hard to pass and catch in the first half. We finally came out with two goals, then we had the rain delay, and then we knew what we needed to do after that.”
Hinkle expanded on how the rain delay helped the team become more focused on what needed to be done.
“I think the rain delay definitely helped us,” she said. “We talked strategy, we got our stuff together. Our momentum was so much better.”
Coming back after the rain, the Cardinals took a 3-2 lead within the first half. Because of the lengthy delay, the officials decided to forgo halftime and the second half started right away.
The Lions wasted no time regaining the lead at the start of the second half. In fact, they scored two goals within six seconds, bringing it up to 4-3 with 23:39 left in the game.
Foley scored first, and Hinkle scored six seconds later.
For the game, the senior captain, Foley, had five goals, while Hinkle, a sophomore, had four goals.
“Emily has really stepped up,” Coach Manfroni said. “She is one of our senior captains. Her goals recently, not just this game, (but) the other two games as well, (have had excellent) placement of her shots. That’s what sets her apart.
“Grace Hinkle, she is a returning sophomore to varsity. Also (a) great scorer, she knows how to navigate around defense very well. And in pressure situations, she knows how to get out of them.”
McKenzie Nixon (2 goals), and Ava Abounader (1) also contributed to the scoring.
The Lions are off to an excellent start this season at 3-0. They’d next face Hoban on March 30.
