WESTWOOD — In Tuesday’s much-anticipated nonleague girls lacrosse tilt at Westwood, Notre Dame Academy of Hingham coach Meredith Frank was not worried about the host Wolverines making a run.
She knew that was coming.
What concerned her more was how her Cougars would respond.
After her team’s 16-11 win, Frank got the answer she was looking for, as Notre Dame knocked off the two-time defending Div. 1 champs with a complete performance.
Notre Dame, in Div. 2 come postseason, improved to 9-0 with the victory, while Westwood drops to 6-3.
“That game is never over,” Frank said. “Until the scoreboard reads zero, zero, zero, that game is never over, and we need to make sure we play that way. At any time, Westwood is going to make a run. We knew that they were going to respond. We knew that they were going to come hard. It was just a matter of us taking advantage of the possessions that we had.”
The Cougars led throughout, scored the first six goals of the game, and held an 8-3 halftime advantage. Goalie Summer Foraste made 10 saves. The scoring effort was balanced, as Emma Connerty, Alexa Kenney, and Siobhan Colin had three goals apiece, Jane Hilsabeck, Aubrey McMahon, and Reilly Walsh scored twice, and Paige Foraste scored once.
You never know where the next Cougars cutter was coming from, and Westwood had trouble defending them.
“It’s so fun,” Kenney said of her team’s ability to get scoring from anywhere. “Honestly, it’s one of the biggest keys to our success as a team, because everyone is a threat on the field. It’s not like one person is doing everything. Everyone’s a threat. Anyone on the field can do something with the ball.”
Although Westwood was thoroughly outplayed in the first half, the Wolverines made a game of it. Westwood opened the second frame with two goals from Ava Connaughton, and suddenly a once six-goal lead was down to three.
But the Cougars didn’t panic. Connerty scored with 20:33 left to make it 9-5, then Kenney struck from in close to make it 10-5 just 24 seconds later.
Westwood was able to make it a four-goal game several times after that, but Notre Dame was in control to make sure it wouldn’t get closer.
Frank likes what she has in her team, but said its hardest work is ahead.
“I told the girls that they’ve raised the proverbial bar,” Frank said. “They did that to themselves. So it just gives us permission to work harder, and to become better, and to do whatever it takes to get to where we want to be at the end of the season.”
For Westwood, Caroline Nozzolillo scored three goals, Lillian Hancock had two, Kella McGrail had two, Catherine McGowan and Cecelia Thurmond had one apiece