By most accounts, the Fort Mill High girls’ lacrosse team has had a good season, but ran into a buzzsaw in the number one ranked Spartanburg Vikings.
Spartanburg beat Fort Mill 19-6 on Wednesday, April 15 dropping the Jackets to 8-4 overall on the season. The win improved the Vikings to 12-1 on the season. The two teams won’t see each other in the playoffs and will certainly see each other next season as they will be in the same region.
“It is a good reality check,” said Fort Mill head girls coach Kirsten Terry. “We had won seven in a row. It motivates the kids and lights a fire in them. Having taken a week off in the middle of the season (with spring break) has always been an Achilles heel for us. It is a good team to go up against before the playoffs. I think they will bounce back. They knew what went wrong.”
Fort Mill started off scoring 40 seconds into the match with a goal from Clare Roland, before Spartanburg rattled off four consecutive goals before a Fort Mill timeout. The Vikings came out of the timeout and scored two more times as they controlled possession through most of the first quarter.
Scoring slow for Spartanburg to start the second quarter. About the eight-minute mark, the two teams traded goals with Catherine Bois scoring for the Jackets. Spartanburg pushed their lead to a six-goal lead two minutes later.
Fort Mill struggled with ball control leading to turnovers. The Vikings took advantage of those errors by creating opportunities for themselves. After getting the ball back on a Vikings turnover, Fort Mill’s Molly Bennett scored the Jackets’ third goal of the contest with about 70 seconds remaining in the first half.
The Jackets would enter the half trailing 10-3.
Spartanburg picked right up after the second half began scoring 36 seconds into the third quarter. The Vikings kept the momentum going with another goal about 30 seconds later.
Spartanburg went up by 10 with less than 10 minutes left in the third quarter to start a running clock. The Vikings kept the momentum alive by winning face-offs and maintaining possession.
Fort Mill was able to pick up one goal in the third quarter as Bennett scored her second of the match with 2:20 remaining. Spartanburg outscored the Jackets 7-1 in the quarter.
The Jackets controlled possession for most of the fourth quarter, which finally resulted in a goal Cece Shia with about five minutes remaining in the match. Shia would get one more goal with about 40 seconds left to get two in the match.
Up next for Fort Mill is senior night against rival Nation Ford at Bob Jones Stadium on Thursday, April 16.
April 15 Roundup
The Fort Mill boys golf team topped Catawba Ridge at Fort Mill Golf Club. The Jackets shot 154 to the Copperheads 164. Fort Mill was led by an even par 36 from Baler Tolentino. Morgan Bayko shot a 38 for Fort Mill and Nick Harper and Noah Jones both finished with rounds of 40. Roman Vasicko led Catawba Ridge with a one over 37. Niam Sethi shot a 41 and both Muller Otto and Christian Cook finished with rounds of 43.
The Nation Ford baseball team won the season series against Catawba Ridge with a 5-3 win in game two of the series. Nation Ford is now 14-5 on the season and 8-3 in Region 3-5A. Catawba Ridge dropped to 10-9 overall and 5-6 in the region. Alex Smith went 2-3 for Nation Ford with two RBIs. Quinn Clouden, Tyler Causey and Jack Shellnut each had two hits for Catawba Ridge.
The Nation Ford softball team fell to York 10-2 to drop to 14-5 on the season. The Falcons got just one hit from Paizlei Ross with a home run in the second inning.
The Catawba Ridge softball team won a slugfest at Lexington High School 15-12. The Copperheads scattered 13 hits and gave up 16 hits as Tilly Boss went 2-5 with four RBIs and B.G. Yates went 3-4. Mia Kovacs went 2-3 with two RBIs. Nora Mari got the win and Yates got the save for the Copperheads, which improved to 13-8 overall on the season.
Late Tuesday, the Fort Mill boys’ soccer team fell to Clover 1-0 on the road to drop to 6-6 overall an 3-5 in Region 3-5A.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
