Fort Mill’s Lydia Laney looks to get around two Riverside defenders during the Upper State championship Monday evening.

Somebody was going to make a surge, but just who that was no one was quite sure of until the start of the second half.

Unfortunately for Fort Mill, that surge came from the Riverside Warriors as they beat the Jackets 12-9 in the 5A Upper State girls’ lacrosse championship Monday at Bob Jones Stadium. Riverside will now take on Wando Saturday at 11 a.m. in the state championship at Irmo High School.

The second half struggle for Fort Mill was obvious. They didn’t get the calls they needed and struggled with controlling possession. The Jackets held a small 5-4 lead after the first half, but was outscored in the second half 8-4.

“The fouls really hurt us,” said Fort Mill head coach Kirsten Terry. “That really did us in.”

Riverside came out in the second half and scored four consecutive goals to make a run and go up 8-5. Fort Mill fought back to tie the game at 9-9 as they went on a small run as well scoring four of the next five goals.

The Jackets were led by Lydia Laney and Xan Hill, each of which scored three goals in the game.

“For them to come back and keep fighting says a lot about them,” Terry said.

After tying the game at 9-9, Riverside scored the final three goals of the game in 2:17 as Fort Mill was never able to really grab the lead in the second half.

Both teams opened the first half going back-and-forth trading goals with each other as Auri French opened the game for Fort Mill with a goal about eight minutes in the game. Laney and Hill added their first goals of the game in the first half as well before Kat Parham scored a goal with about nine minutes in the opening half to give Fort Mill a 4-3 lead. Riverside tied the game up at 4-4 about six minutes later before Hill gave the lead back to the Jackets with about two minutes to go in the first half.

Fort Mill finished the season with a 9-8 record and got to the Upper State championship despite having two key injuries to starters which put them out for the rest of the season.

In other games…

The Fort Mill golf team improved to 8-1 on the season with a sweep of a three-may match against Northwestern and Catawba Ridge at Waterford Golf Club. Fort Mill shot a 164 with Catawba Ridge shooting a 169 and Northwestern shooting a 193. Alex Martin led Fort Mill with a 39 followed by a 41 from Parker Harrington and a pair of 42s from Baker Tolentino and Cade Bettie. Catawba Ridge was led by a 38 from OT Mitchell, followed by a 41 from Hunter Warren and three 45s from Parrish Fox and Emerson Hill.

The Fort Mill baseball team won an important Region 3-5A game over Gaffney 9-0 to improve to 15-7 on the season and 3-7 in the region. Scott Young led the Jackets at the plate going 3-4.

The Nation Ford baseball team fell to Boiling Springs 18-6 and dropped to 7-17 overall on the season and 4-6 in Region 3-5A play.

The Fort Mill softball team beat Nation Ford 5-0 as Maddie Drerup allowed just three hits in the shutout, while striking out four and walking two. Fort Mill improves to 10-5 and 6-1 in Region 3-5A, while Nation Ford drops to 9-11 overall and 2-5 in the region.  

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep

Xan Hill runs down the field for Fort Mill in the Upper State title game Monday at Bob Jones Stadium. Hill scored three goals in the match.
Sydney Wilcox stops a ball from going out of bounds for Fort Mill.