Sports

Slow Start Dooms North Harrison in Saline

Abby Davis scored four goals to lead her team.

For the first 20 minutes and last 15 minutes of Friday's game at Saline, the North Harrison Hawks looked like a top flight girls' lacrosse team. But it was that period between that left the Hawks on the wrong end of a 15-9 score. The team fell to 0-8 on the season.

Abby Davis scored four goals and Peggy Phelan scored three times to lead North Harrison, which also got goals from Emily Wilcox and Cassie Callahan.

"I wish we played the whole game like we played the end. Sometimes it takes a little while for us all to get going. Once we get that fire, we play well. But we all need to show up at the same time and bring our best," said Harrison coach Nicky Barrett.

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Saline improved to 7-6.

Chelsea Bishop scored eight goals to lead Saline. Eryn Healy scored two goals and added a pair of assists. Amelia Waters tallied twice and had a helper. Jessica Opaleski scored and assisted once. Alison Rentschler and Lauren Diroff also scored and Briana Martin had an assist.

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Saline opened the scoring with a goal from Healy, who was in good shooting position after a penalty. A couple minutes later, the Hornets made it 2-0 when Bishop grabbed a loose ball and sprinted into scoring position. She was fouled and then scored from 10 feet out. Saline took a 3-0 lead when Bishop scored one of her patented wrap around goals.

Harrison got on the board with a goal by Davis from eight feet. After Bishop and Davis traded goals again, Saline led 4-2. Saline goalie Ashton Cole made three big saves on Davis and Phelan during one Harrison frenzy. Harrison got within a goal with 8:13 to play in the half when Wilcox scored from 12 feet out.

Saline coach Deb Elliot wasn't happy with her team's play to that point.

"I thought we were sloppy and lacked focus," Elliot said. "I think we were a little distracted by the Senior Night celebration."

The score remained 4-3 until Healy scored with 5:02 left in the half. With the score still close, Cole robbed Wilcox again at the 2:19 mark. Seconds later Lauren Diroff spotted Bishop with a pass. Bishop sprinted half the length of the field and ripped a shot home for a 6-3 lead. Amelia Waters made it 7-3 just 18 seconds later with a bounce shot that gave Saline breathing room at halftime.

The Hornets put the game away with three goals in four minutes to start the second half. First, Bishop scored on a wraparound after getting a pass from Opaleski. Then Bishop scored on a sprint down the left wing after getting a pass from Healy. Opaleski made it 10-3 with a goal from about 15-feet out.

Davis interrupted Saline's eruption with a goal with 18:40 to play. Unfazed, the Hornets scored the next three goals, getting tallies from Rentschler, Waters and then Diroff, who was set up by Waters on a pretty passing play.

Davis broke up the Saline run again, this time arcing from the corner to the middle of the field and firing a shot past Allison Broucek to make it 13-5.

Bishop sandwiched her seventh and eighth goals of the contest around a marker from Harrison's Wilcox. Harrison closed out the game with two goals from Phelan and a goal by Callahan.

The junior varsity contest was a scrimmage because Harrison didn't have enough girls to field a full team. Saline provided one of their goalies to Harrison for the game.

"I thought what Saline did was terrific. Their goalies played for us and they were excellent and they even cheered with us at the end of the game," Barrett said. "That was a class act."


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