Charlotte Castonguay of St. Dom’s fires a shot on goal during Monday’s game against Freeport in Auburn. Castonguay scored on the play, putting the Saints up 6-2. Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover
AUBURN —Monday’s girls lacrosse contest between Freeport and St. Dom’s had momentum swing after momentum swing.
The Saints, though, didn’t let the Falcons to go on a big second-half run, and St. Dom’s came away with a 17-13 victory in a Class C showdown.
St. Dom’s was led by Charlotte Gastonguay, who scored seven goals, including the 100th of her career. Avery Lutrzykowski added three goals and five assists, and Emma Theriault and Mia-Anglina Leslie each had a hat trick.
“We kind of live for game days, so it’s nice to have them,” Lutrzykowski said. “We’ve had a lot in the past week or so, coming off games and being able to continue to play hard is great.”
The Falcons were led by Molly Whelan’s five goals.
The teams swapped goals in the first five minutes. Allison Greuel gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead before Gastonguay finished a feed from Lutrzykowski. Meredith Feller then gave Freeport a 2-1 lead.
“That’s what I expected today to be,” Freeport coach Marcia Wood said of the back-and-forth start. “Unfortunately, they got a few more ahead of us and we threw the ball away too many times. You can’t win a game when you throw the ball away.”
Theriault was the first Saint to get hot as she picked up two of her three goals less than a minute apart to give St. Dom’s a 3-2 lead. Leslie assisted on Theriault’s first goal and Lutrzykowski set up the second.
St. Dom’s run stretched 5-0 as the Gastonguay scored three straight goals for a 6-2 lead.
Freeport goalkeeper Piper Sherber makes a save on a shot from Charlotte Castonguay of St. Dom’s during Monday’s game in Auburn. Grace Zachau of Freeport defends Castonguay. Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover
“That’s what a good offense is, you have to have different threats throughout the game,” St. Dom’s coach Leslie Klenk said. “When one threat was shut down, another threat opened, and that’s what we have been striving for. Today is the first time we showed what we can do when that happens.”
Freeport freshman Savannah Tracy stopped the Saints’ run, scoring with a little more than minutes remaining in the first half.
Lutrzykowski responded to put the Saints up 7-3.
“We started to slow it down and we were more patient on offense and our defenders started to work really, really well,” Lutrzykowski said. “(Goalie) Simone (Long) had an amazing game again, for her to make some saves in front of the goal and our defense to bring (the ball) to the attack was great.”
Long made 12 saves in the game.
Whelan took over, tallying three goals in a row to put Freeport within one before Margaret Perrotta tied the game at 7-7. Tracy then scored again to give the Falcons the lead back with less than two minutes remaining.
Addie Suckow of St. Dom’s cradles between Grace Zachau, left, and Ellie Whittier of Freeport during Monday’s game in Auburn. Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover
Wood called a timeout after Tracy’s first goal and told her team that they could carry the game for the rest of the first half.
“It was a momentum shift. I wanted them to focus on that momentum shift and keep them doing things that they were doing for us to come out and get those few quick goals,” Wood said.
Leslie tied the game up at 8-8 with a minute remaining in the first half.
“At the end of the first half, we were turning the ball over a lot,” Klenk said. “We weren’t getting the ground balls, not seeing an open pass when we had it or making a bad pass on offense to turn it over. I think we still had some hiccups in the second half, but we reduced it dramatically and that’s why we were able to come out on top.”
The teams swapped goals again to start the second half. Gastonguay scored for the Saints, while Whelan responded for the Falcons. Addie Suckow, who was stopped by Freeport goalie Piper Sherbert earlier in the half, found the back of the cage for a 10-9 Saints lead before Paige Rinaldi tied it up.
St. Dom’s went on its second run of the game, jumping out to a 16-10 lead as Lutrzykowski and Gastonguay scored twice, while Theriault finished her hat trick and Leslie picked up her second goal of the game.
St. Dom’s goalkeeper Simone Long makes a save on a shot by Meredith Feller of Freeport during Monday’s game in Auburn. Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover
“We were scoring when we were (running) our offense well,” Gastonguay said. “When didn’t do it well, they got up. Basically, (the coaches) told us to calm down, do our offense and play how we usually play.”
Aynslie Decker tried to spark Freeport on another run as they closed the deficit to 16-12. Leslie completed her hat trick to give St. Dom’s a five-goal lead before Perrotta capped the scoring off with a little less than three minutes left in the game.
Mia-Angelina Leslie, center, of St. Dom’s celebrates with her teammates after she scored a goal to put the Saints up 13-10 against Freeport on Monday. Sun Journal photo by Daryn Slover
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