After a close first half, the Fort Mill Lady Jackets lacrosse team unloaded in the second half for an easy win.
The Jackets beat rival Nation Ford 16-4 and clinched the Region 3-5A title improving their record to 7-7 overall and 6-0 in the region for their last regular season match.
Despite winning their last two region matches by 12 goals each, Fort Mill head coach Kirsten Terry still isn’t looking too far ahead.
“We are taking them one at a time,” she said. “I am super proud of the girls and all their hard work. Our leadership has come through and Molly (Bennett) and Cece (Shia) is behind our attack.”
Fort Mill will open the girls’ lacrosse playoffs next week and could possibly have a first-round bye.
Against Nation Ford on Wednesday, the Falcons won the opening faceoff, but fail to score. After turning the ball over, the Jackets scored on their first possession with a goal from Mallory Hitch.
After the goal, the Falcons won the next face off and was able to score this time around with a goal from Allison Knauff.
Two minutes later, the Jackets’ Rylee Raiter put Fort Mill ahead.
Leading 2-1 entering the second quarter, Fort Mill’s Cece Shia scored to open things up for the Jackets 50 seconds into play.
The Falcons would get a goal three minutes later from Ava Tettambel to pull within one of Fort Mill.
However, the Jackets bounced back with a goal from Shia and Hitch to take a 5-2 lead into the half.
Fort Mill opened the second half with back-to-back goals from Raiter and Catherine Bois within 85 seconds after the third quarter started.
Shia got a hat trick with 9:12 left in the period and put the Jackets up 8-2 and then scored again two minutes later before a Nation Ford timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Jackets’ Claire Roland scored and then Raiter got a hat trick to put Fort Mill up 11-3.
Nation Ford ended the Jackets streak of eight consecutive goals as Canaan Ross scored for the Falcons.
Molly Bennett came back for the Jackets and scored her 100th career goal with 3:10 left in the third quarter.
Fort Mill outscored Nation Ford 9-1 in the third quarter and started the fourth up 14-3 with a running clock.
In the fourth quarter, Hitch scored a hat trick for herself and Bennett scored her second goal of the match. Fort Mill was led with four goals from both Shia and Raiter, three from Hitch, two from Bennett and Bois.
Nation Ford finished the season at 2-13 and 1-5 in region play.
“It was a building year,” said Falcons’ head coach Emily Daly. “It was a young team. It was a tough season. We just need to get more matches under our belt.”
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
