Girls lacrosse: Neuqua Valley speeds past Naperville North

There's just another gear for some teams.

One of them very well may be the Neuqua Valley girls lacrosse team.

The Wildcats found themselves in a tie game and on the ropes Wednesday early in the second half of their DuPage Valley Conference battle against host Naperville North.

But then that second - or even third - gear kicked in.

Neuqua Valley scored 6 unanswered goals in a little under 10 minutes, which proved to the difference in a 16-9 victory that put the Wildcats (10-4, 4-0) one step closer to a conference title.

"I think realizing we weren't intense enough really helped us," said junior attack Courtney Costello, who had 3 goals. "I think it was just our mindset, really, and working as a team and realizing that we need to pass it around, and as long as we work together, we have great opportunities to move the ball."

Naperville North was down 5-1 with 14:05 in the first half when speedy senior midfielder Rachel Goff got knocked down in the Neuqua Valley crease on a scoring chance. Initially, word was she lost a tooth, but in reality, it was just a fat lip.

"I was driving to the net, and the next thing I know, four girls crashed on me," Goff said. "I don't know where the stick came from, but it hit me in the face, and I just remember looking down and seeing blood everywhere."

But it energized the Huskies (5-8, 0-3) and by halftime, they had pulled to within 8-6 - which included a goal by Goff herself with 90 seconds left in the half.

Tallies by senior Mary Tuskey and junior attack Bella Taylor early in the second half tied the game 8-8.

And then that extra gear kicked in for Neuqua Valley. The Wildcats scored 6 unanswered, led off by junior Lauren Reitzel's penalty shot at 21:16 and concluded by junior attack Caroline Perkins' fifth goal of the night. While that was going on, the Huskies were missing 6 shots in a row.

"Tonight, I think really it was the whole team working together," Perkins said of that big run. "Because usually when the team is separated from each other and we play individually, not everybody gets chances to hold the ball. But when we play as a team, everyone has an equal amount of chances to score."

Neuqua Valley won the draw 15 times, and got 5 saves in the second half by senior goalie Stephenie Eichamer to help preserve the victory.

Naperville North, on the other hand, got a solid outing from Tuskey, a defender by trade who recently switched to attack. She scored her first high school hat trick Wednesday.

Though the injury was unfortunate, Tuskey said Goff's fall was the comeback catalyst for her and her team. In fact she took Goff's place to score the penalty shot on that play.

"For me, Rachel Goff is a really close friend of mine, so seeing her get hurt really pushed me to score that goal and go out there and push more for her," she said.

Added Naperville North coach Jessica Hogan: "I think we're a little bit protective of our own players, so it kind of had a hesitation and then kind of fired them up."