Derryfield girls lacrosse pulls away late to beat Bow
BOW – The Derryfield School girls lacrosse coach Mellissa Catenza loves that her team is a tenacious bunch that never gives up. Those qualities came in handy Tuesday afternoon at Bow High School.
The Cougars and Falcons were tied eight different times before Derryfield went on a 4-1 run over the latter part of the second half to capture a 16-13 road victory.
Sydney Socha broke a 12-12 tie when she scored off a feed from Katie Chiasson with 9:37 remaining to put Derryfield (10-1) ahead for good. Madi Kochanek tallied the Cougars’ final three goals to ensure her team’s victory.
Kochanek said it was helpful for Derryfield to win a close game considering the Cougars’ 10-8 loss at Kearsarge on May 2. Eight of Derryfield’s 10 victories have been by at least a nine-goal margin.
“Our other close game (against Kearsarge), we ended up losing so it was important for us to learn how to come back when we’re down,” Kochanek said. “And I think that helped us a lot today because we’ve had a game like this before.”
Penalties forced Bow (7-3) to play a player down twice in the second half.
“With them being down a man for a lot of the second half, we had a lot of doubling going on and our defense was just talking really well,” Kochanek said.
Kochanek, a junior, finished with a team-high five goals, all of which she scored in the second half. Charlotte Powell tallied three goals for the Cougars. Chiasson and Polly Carter each logged two goals for Derryfield. Carter also recorded 16 draw controls.
Bow led once in the second half and three times in the first. The score was tied at 7-7 before Taylor Darrell put the Falcons ahead with 1.5 seconds remaining in the first half when she scored on a free shot.
At halftime, Catenza told her players to forget about the first half and focus on the final 25 minutes.
“I said, ‘First half: done. Let’s write the second-half chapter. You write it the way you want it to end,’ ” Catenza said. “And they dug deep and they did it.”
The Falcons jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Darrell and Amanda Murray before Derryfield tied the score at 2-2.
The score was knotted up four times in each half.
“This is my first year with (Bow) so we’re just kind of getting going but I thought it was a solid, well-played game,” said Falcons coach Chris Raabe.
Darrell scored a game-high six goals for Bow. Murray added four goals.
Maggie Cissel, who had never played goalie before this season, made 15 saves for the Cougars. Pinky Fleury made five stops for the Falcons.
Kochanek said it took the Cougars some time to get going but they were able to find the intensity they needed to pull out the win.
“That happens a lot with us,” Kochanek said. “In the first half, we’re kind of at a lull but we really brought the intensity in the second half.”
