SOUTH CHINA — It was the same result as before when the Erskine Academy and Maranacook/Winthrop girls lacrosse teams met up in the Class C quarterfinals on Saturday. But a far different game.
Paced by Jordan Linscott’s five goals, the second-seeded Eagles (10-3) topped No. 7 Maranacook/Winthrop 14-13, and earned a trip to the semifinals and a matchup with No. 3 St. Dominic. Joanna Linscott added four goals, while Tori Grasse had two and Liz Sugg, Alyssa Savage and Sarah Praul had one each.
“We’ve been working hard all season long, and the kids set in their mind that they wanted to win,” said coach Shara MacDonald, whose team is in the semifinals for the second straight season. “I give the credit to Maranacook, they kept it up, they kept the pressure up, they worked hard. My kids just didn’t quit.”
The Hawks (7-6) got five goals from Anna Drillen, as well as three from Cadence Malcolm, two each from Ella Delisle and Lilly Voye and one from Anna Erb, and were a tougher matchup than the first time the teams played, an 18-9 Erskine win on May 21. This time, the Hawks better utilized their playmakers, and after going into halftime down 10-6, nearly stole the win down the stretch, rallying against an Erskine defense that was without a key player in Caitlin Labbe.
“Some of it was just (Malcolm),” MacDonald said. “She came in and she was getting open shots and we had to try to figure out what their offense was.”
The Eagles had to make up for it on the offensive end, and MacDonald pointed to Sugg for helping the attack work around constant double teams on both Linscotts, and to the team for prevailing through a back-and-forth second half.
“She will get in there and recognize when somebody’s getting double-teamed, and will come over and set screens and things like that,” she said. “I think that was the biggest adjustment they made defensively, there were four girls on those two girls a good chunk of the time.”
Sam Cloutier made 12 saves for Maranacook/Winthrop while Annaliese Patterson made 10 saves for Erskine.
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