Girls’ lax team falls below .500 with pair of losses

After a stinging 17-3 loss to Franklin last Wednesday, the Canton High girls’ lacrosse team bounced back, but still came up short in a 17-16 loss to Oliver Ames on Friday.

“We couldn’t control the draws,” coach Chris Murtagh said of the girls’ performance in both games last week. “And usually whoever controls the draws controls the flow of the game.”

Going into the game against Franklin, the girls knew they would be facing a difficult opponent — one of the top three in the Hock.

“Our goal was to try and stay with them as much as possible,” Murtagh said. “We did well at mid-field, but we had trouble making it all the way to the net.”

Meaghan McKenna, Sarah Healey and Meghan Lennon each scored one goal against Franklin.

The game against OA was much more evenly matched as evidenced by the back-and-forth nature of the score. At the end of the first half, the Bulldogs were down 12-9 after the referees disallowed what appeared to be a buzzer beater by Kaitlin Phillips.

The girls managed to come out strong in the second half, adding seven more goals, but still came up one short. McKenna led the team with an impressive seven goals. Murtagh praised McKenna’s ability to change up her shot selections.

“We had a tendency to shoot high on the OA goalie, so Meaghan changed it up and laid three goals right through her legs,” he said. “It was amazing to see how she can just analyze a situation and make it work to our benefit.”

Other goal scorers included Healey, Michelle McNeil, Kate Merrigan and Emma Compagna with two each, and Lennon with one.

On defense, goalie Michelle Bigot took a ball underneath her neck protector, and despite being a little shaken, she eagerly returned to the game and continued to stop many of OA’s advances.

“Against OA, we just find that it usually comes down to who controls the ball at the end of the game,” Murtagh said, recalling the first game of the season when Canton edged the Tigers 15-13. “But the girls fought hard right to the end.”

The Bulldogs (4-5) were looking to get back on track this week with three games in six days: Monday at North Attleboro, Thursday versus Foxboro, and a rare Saturday contest against nonleague Cohasset.

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Posted by Jeffrey Cattel on May 11 2011. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.