Nashua South girls lacrosse comes back to beat Concord
Ciki McIntire said her team has experienced several peaks and valleys over the course of the season.
CONCORD – Nashua High School South girls lacrosse coach Ciki McIntire said her team has experienced several peaks and valleys over the course of the season.
Perhaps the highest peak so far came Thursday, when the Panthers rallied back from a five-goal deficit to defeat Concord, 9-8, at Memorial Field.
Liz Harrington broke a 7-7 tie with 4:35 left to give Nashua South (3-6) its first lead of the game. Teammate Allison Magrane scored off a feed from Kirsten McIntire with 40 seconds remaining to build a 9-7 Panthers advantage.
Christina Soule’s goal with 19 seconds left pulled the Crimson Tide (3-3) within one. Teammate Jess Nelson had a chance to tie the game when she was awarded a free shot with three seconds remaining.
Nashua South goalie Abbey Rowe (10 saves) denied Nelson’s bid and was swarmed by her teammates after the game’s final three seconds ticked away.
“I’m just so proud of the way they fought back and had poise at the end because that’s something we’ve been working on is not throwing the ball away at the end,” Ciki McIntire said.
Concord scored the game’s first five goals before Emily Colburn put the Panthers on the board with 14:31 left before halftime. Kirsten McIntire scored twice over the final 7:59 of the first half to cut the Crimson Tide’s lead to 6-3 entering halftime.
“When you can score three goals like that and then you have to go into halftime, you almost wish you can continue because you don’t want to take that break,” Ciki McIntire said.
The intermission did not hinder South’s momentum, however.
After Concord scored the first goal of the second half, the Panthers responded with a 6-0 run that did not end until they had built a 9-7 advantage. Kirsten McIntire logged two goals and an assist over South’s 6-0 run.
Concord coach Steph Johnson did not notice any difference between how the Panthers played in the second half compared to over the first 25 minutes. She felt her team needed to capitalize on more of the opportunities it had.
“We were up 6-1. We were able to do that,” Johnson said. “It’s just a matter of being able to finish through the whole game.”
Causing turnovers and scooping up ground balls fueled the Panthers’ comeback. South won just two draw controls in the second half and five overall but recorded 16 ground balls and 12 caused turnovers.
Harrington said South’s success getting ground balls and causing turnovers shows that the team gives 110 percent in every aspect of the game.
“That’s the kind of effort that we like to see on the field, especially against a team that we might not win (against),” Harrington said. “I think always having the effort and putting that in to get the ground ball and keeping possession is the key part of the game.”
Delana Erickson and Becca Proulx both scored three goals and Soule added two of her own for Concord. Erickson also won 13 draw controls. Teammate Fabi McLeod made four saves.
Kirsten McIntire finished with a game-high four goals alongside two assists and Colburn scored twice. Magrane, Harrington and Christina Parragio each tallied a goal for Nashua South.
“(This is) another stepping stone,” Ciki McIntire said. “We still have a good portion of the season ahead of us so hopefully (we) take this, keep building and keep going forward in a positive direction.”
