Over the course of a year to the naked eye, one thing is certain about the Catawba Ridge girls’ lacrosse team – they are getting better.
Despite being 1-3 on the season, this year’s squad looks on the field like they can handle themselves in tough situations such as in the battle they had with the Cuthbertson Cavaliers Thursday night at The Pit.
Although they lost 11-9, Catawba Ridge held their own for the entire game as they were led by Kiley McManemin’s four goals.
“We played well,” said Copperheads’ head coach Pat Gromley. “We are getting better every day. They are young, but they are getting better.”
The second half was a defensive struggle early on as Cuthbertson led 7-6 at the break. McManemin scored her third goal of the game to tie it at 7-7 seven minutes in the second half. Two minutes later, Catawba Ridge would take their last lead of the game at 8-7 as Katie Scola scored with 16 minutes left to play.
From there Cuthbertson would score the next three goals to take a 10-7 lead before both teams would add one more goal to close the game out.
The first half was just as close for the Copperheads as the two teams traded goals in the early part of the game. Cuthbertson struck first just 46 seconds into play to take the early lead. Catawba Ridge came back 14 seconds later to tie the game at 1-1 on a goal from Megan Mulchaey. The Copperheads took their first lead of the game as McManemin scored her first goal of the game nearly 10 minutes later.
Cuthbertson would rattle off three straight goals to go up 4-2, before Catawba Ridge would battle back with back-to-back goals from Ashley McManemin and Alyssa Ramadanovic with about 11 minutes left in the opening half.
The Cavaliers would again surge ahead, but struggled to keep the Copperheads from regaining any momentum as Kiley McManemin and Ember Rosowski would add goals right before the half.
For Gromley, he said he knows his team can hang with their opponents, but it is going to take time for the players to actually believe that. His goal for this season is to improve on last year and make the playoffs again.
“I am hoping to win half of our games at least,” he said. “We have had a one-goal and a two-goal loss. Hopefully at the end of the season we will be getting those one-goal and two-goal wins.”
Other games…
The Nation Ford boys’ lacrosse improved to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in Region 3-5A with a 15-3 win over Boiling Springs on the road. The Falcons girls’ lacrosse team improved to 2-2 on the season with a 19-9 win over Boiling Springs at home.
Baseball
Fort Mill’s Connor Rasmussen threw a no-hitter in the Jackets first game of the season beating St. James 8-0 in the Coastal Invitational. Dylan Schaefer had two hits in the win with a double and a triple.
Catawba Ridge baseball pummeled Lewisville 20-1 as part of the Comporium pre-season tournament. Owen Noonan went 2-5 with five RBI and a home run and Harrison Wilson went 3-3 with five RBI and a home run as well.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
