The Fort Mill girls’ lacrosse team rallied from two points down to score get four consecutive goals in the fourth quarter and end with a perfect Region 3-5A schedule.
Fort Mill edged Nation Ford 8-6 finishing the game with four fourth quarter goals. The Jackets finished with an 8-0 region record and improved to 10-4 overall, while Nation Ford finished 5-3 in the region and 8-3 overall.
Fort Mill head coach Kirsten Terry spoke highly of Nation Ford after the game.
“They are a good team,” she said. “We somehow pulled it out.”
Coming into the game, Fort Mill had already mathematically clinched the region title, but wanted to get the season series against Nation Ford without the teams splitting games.
The match started slow for both squads despite Fort Mill controlling possession a little bit more than Nation Ford in the opening quarter. Fort Mill had multiple shooting space attempts but couldn’t convert, while the Falcons struggled to convert in transition.
The match entered the second quarter scoreless, but that didn’t last long. Fort Mill’s Grace Sandler scored 56 seconds into the second quarter to break the scoreless tie.
Nation Ford however came back and was able to get a goal about 70 seconds later by Caitlyn Stolarek.
The Jackets broke the tie two minutes later with a goal by Taylor Wilcox.
Nation Ford equalized things with about 5:15 left in the half as Sarah Kinley found the goal emerging from a scrum with both sides fighting to grab possession of the ball. That score would tie the match at two as that is how they entered the half.
One thing Fort Mill struggled with was losing the groundball battle often giving the ball back to the Falcons in the first half.
Nation Ford scored about two minutes into the second half as Canaan Ross put the visitors up.
Fort Mill didn’t waste any time getting things even as Sandler scored her second goal of the game.
The Jackets started holding the ball more on possessions and were more patient looking for the best shot. That paid off as Molly Bennett gave Fort Mill the lead again with 4:50 left in the third quarter.
With less than two minutes left in the quarter, Reese Maidhof tied the game again at 4-4. That score would remain as the teams entered the fourth quarter tied once again.
The Falcons’ Catherine Barhorst had been held in check by Fort Mill until the fourth quarter.
Barhorst scored back-to-back goals opening the fourth quarter in the first two and half minutes of the period to put Nation Ford up 6-4.
The lead again was short lived as Fort Mill came back with goals from Bennett and CeCe Shia to once
again, tie things up.
The Jackets would score their third consecutive goal this time coming in the form of Wilcox’s second goal with 5:25 left in the game and Isabel English scored with 54 seconds left in the game to wrap things up for the Jackets.
“We gave up two opportunities late,” said Nation Ford head coach Emily Daly. “If we had a real opportunity after that on offense for any long period of time, I think it would have been different. I think we just ran out of time.”
Both teams have two regular season games left after the spring break holiday next week.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
