After starting the season 6-0, the Catawba Ridge Lady Copperheads fell to a strong Cuthbertson Cavaliers team for their first loss of the season.
The Copperheads lost 19-11 on St. Patrick’s Day despite a strong second half, where they outscored Cuthbertson 7-5.
“They are a tough opponent,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Patrick Gormley. “We were a little bit flat.”
Gormley said in his 30 years of coaching he hasn’t had a team score as many goals as the Copperheads had in their first six matches with 113 goals.
“Having 11 seniors helps,” he said. “It’s not a bad thing. In the past, we haven’t been as cohesive. They are willing to share the ball more.’
Catawba Ridge won the opening face-off and scored a minute into play with a goal from Carleigh Conroy. Not to be outdone, Paige Conroy got in on the scoring a little over three minutes later to put the Copperheads up 2-0 early in the opening period.
Cuthbertson cut that lead in half midway through the first quarter with a goal. The Cavaliers controlled possession longer in the first quarter, but struggled with taking advantage of the time they had the ball.
The Cavaliers finally evened the score with a goal at the 4:21 mark in the first. Cuthbertson won the next face-off and scored less than a minute later to take the lead. The Cavs won yet another face-off and scored giving them a three-goal lead.
On their next possession, Cuthbertson would turn the ball over leading to an Ember Rosowski goal for Catawba Ridge. Rosowski recently scored her 100th career goal in a match last week.
The Cavs started the second quarter with a two-goal lead, but Carleigh Conroy scored her second goal of the match two minutes into play.
Catawba Ridge struggled at times winning face-offs and losing ground balls, which the Cavs took advantage of scoring twice in two minutes to push out their lead. Cuthbertson would go on a four-goal streak before a Copperheads timeout. The Cavs would come out of timeout to score five more goals before the half and go up 14-4 at the break.
The Copperheads broke the Cuthbertson streak with Rosowski scoring her second goal just over two minutes into play in the second half. Catawba Ridge did have some bright spots in the third quarter as Carleigh Conroy and Emma Fiaschetti both scored. For Conroy, it gave her a hat trick for the match.
Down by 11 points to start the fourth quarter, the Copperheads didn’t quit as Paige Conroy got her second goal of the match just 20 seconds into the final period.
Carleigh Conroy scored with about six minutes remaining and Lydia McCarter scored a minute later to get the Copperheads deficit under 10. Carleigh Conroy added a fifth and final goal with six seconds left in the match for the Copperheads.
March 17 Roundup
The Catawba Ridge baseball team opened its three-game series against Northwestern dropping the first game 4-3 and falling to 2-2 in Region 3-5A and 4-3-1 overall.
The Fort Mill baseball team beat Clover 4-2 to open its three-game series with them. Jacob Pettit went 3-4 to lead Fort Mill with two RBIs. Fort Mill is 5-2 overall and 2-2 in Region 3-5A play.
Nation Ford boys’ lacrosse beat Riverside 11-7 at home to improve to 6-2 on the season.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
