Girls lacrosse: Rucoba, Wheaton United find deciding goal vs. Benet

For almost 50 minutes on Thursday night, the Wheaton United and Benet girls lacrosse teams traded punches like a pair of heavyweight prize fighters.

Turns out Wheaton United had one last haymaker.

Senior attack Ava Rucoba delivered it with 42 seconds left. She took a pass in the near-crease from junior teammate Andersen Lewellyan and deposited it in the upper portion of the Benet net, which gave Wheaton United a hard-fought 10-9 nonconference victory in a game played at Benedictine University.

Not bad, considering the Redwings jumped out to a 5-1 halftime lead behind 3 goals from midfielder Anna Schuster, who finished with 5 on the evening.

But Wheaton United had something to prove. It lost to Benet 5-3 in the title game of the St. Francis tournament last Saturday.

"Andersen and I have been playing together for awhile, so I knew if she threw it, I could catch it no matter what," Rucoba said of her game-winner. "It took me a few seconds to make sure I had the ball in my stick, I saw an opening on the goalie's right side, and I took it."

What was Lewellyan's perspective?

"I make eye contact with certain players, Annabelle (Nelson), Campbell (Clynch) and Ava," she said. "They know if it's coming to them, they've got to burst to it and it always works out."

Make no mistake, though. The first half left Wheaton United coach Paul Ciufo nonplused. Schuster, whose nickname is "Wheels," lived up to that nickname and looked to make the Redwings run away with the contest all by herself. Her most impressive first-half goal came late, with 4:33 left, circling the net and passing to junior midfielder Josephine Napolski, who gave it right back and blasted it past Wheaton United freshman goalie Kyra Nolen.

"At half I told the team how disappointed I was in the way they played," Ciufo said. "They were sloppy, bad passing and they were giving no effort. They needed to step it up and play the game they are best at, which is passing the ball and not turning it over. And that's what they did."

The comeback started with a bang, as junior Campbell Clynch scored three goals in a little over two minutes early in the second half. Clynch, a transfer from Montini, added another with 6:54 in the contest that tied it at 8-8.

And that's when the real fun began. Wheaton United freshman Tate Stokesberry gave her team its first lead at 4:05 with a goal on a shot just above the crease. Schuster counterpunched at 2:56 with an unassisted goal into the right corner of the net.

Benet had a chance to take the lead, and perhaps the game, on a point-blank shot by Napolski that Nolen blocked away at 1:47.

A little over a minute later, Rucoba was just a little bit better.

Make no mistake, it was a tough loss for Benet, considering the Redwings were missing eight seniors due to an early spring-break departure, which is nearly half the team, according to coach Caitlin Delaney. Plus, they didn't get any help on a disputed shot call with 12 seconds to go that gave Wheaton United the ball.

But they did outshoot Wheaton United 29-19, and they took 18 first-half shots. Plus, Schuster was an absolute force, a point not lost on Delaney.

"She's just a natural athlete," she said. "She knows how to find the back of the net no matter where she is on the field. She somehow manages."

Adjustments are forthcoming after spring break, Delaney added.

"Having everyone back, that will help," she said. "We're going to start a new offense. We kind of started going over a new offense at practice yesterday, but to try to run that today with half of our players missing wasn't the time to try to do that."