Girls lacrosse: York pulls away from Montini in second half
The first five minutes or so of the second half are the most important in lacrosse, and York's girls team made the most of that opportunity Friday afternoon.
The Dukes tallied twice in the first 5:41 of the second half against pesky Montini to overcome a 2-goal deficit. That set the stage for a big second half that saw York score 4 unanswered goals at one point to win going away, 11-8.
Senior attack Eileen O'Donell did the most damage for the Dukes in the second half, scoring three times, including two off penalty shots. The third, with 10:18 left in the game, saw her drive all the way down the field, cut left and fire a shot into the right side of the net past Montini senior goalie Audrey Maloney.
That gave York a 10-7 lead at the time, and after Montini senior midfielder Johanna Kingsfield's fourth goal of the game, with nine minutes to go, O'Donell set the final score with a penalty shot at 3:37.
"As a team, when we come out in the second half, we make sure we're really going strong," O'Donell said. "You really have to come out and assert your dominance over the other team.
"It's a pretty big win. This is a big rivalry we've had for years. We used to get crushed by this team, but now we're winning against them."
The Broncos owned most of the first half, getting 3 goals in the first seven-plus minutes by junior attack Shannon Williams, all from the left side of the net. The prettiest was the third, with 15:49 left in the first half, when she took a pass on that left side, pivoted off a defender and fired a shot past York goalie Caroline Fritsch.
"When I go from the bottom of the crease, I just run to the side, hope they bite, and go under," Williams said.
"She's a returner to varsity and I think that her experience is really showing," first-year Montini coach Fran Meyer said of Williams. "She knows how to be aggressive, she knows how to adjust to these teams that are better. She was a huge contributor."
Kingsfield, a Northwestern recruit and one of the most dangerous scorers in DuPage County, got going late in the first half. With 3:51 to go, she took a pass from fellow senior Enya O'Flaherty about 10 yards out on the left side and buried it in the back of the net.
At 28.5 seconds she went coast-to-coast, picking up a loose ball on her own end, outracing a host of defenders and then firing a shot into the net.
That made the score 6-4 Montini at the half, but York had plans for the second 25 minutes. The Dukes got a pair of goals early on penalty shots made by sophomore attack Jenna Hughes and O'Donell to tie the score.
After Kingsfield's third goal the Dukes scored four in a row, off the sticks of junior midfielder Cate Duhig, sophomore midfielder Emily Fleckenstein, Duhig again on a penalty shot, and finally O'Donell's long drive.
"We made some adjustments on the draw, we made some adjustments defensively, and those decisions paid off," York coach Ryan Walz said. "They had a lot of speed, and to match their speed was tough to do, but we felt we did a better job of that in the second half."
York outshot Montini 29-19 and also won the draw battle 12-9. Maloney had 11 saves for the Broncos, while Fritsch had 7, including 4 in the second half, which was key to holding Kingsfield - her good friend - to just two goals.
"(It was) just keeping a clear mind and making sure I was focusing on the ball and not getting distracted by the play around it," she said.