The Fort Mill girls’ lacrosse team almost got the shutout over the Catawba Ridge Copperheads coming away with a 14-2 win Monday night.
“Our offense moved the ball well,” said Fort Mill head coach Kirsten Terry. “Our defense had a great game. It was a good team win.”
Catawba Ridge took control early in the first quarter and tried for about four minutes to score, but was held by the Jackets’ defense.
Once Fort Mill got the ball back they scored three quick goals to establish some dominance with goals from Grace Sandler, Taylor Wilcox and CeCe Shia.
The Copperheads did find the back of the net at the six-minute mark, but the goal was waved off after the ref called a dangerous shot penalty.
The scoring did slow some for the Jackets as they went about five minutes without scoring before Molly Bennett put Fort Mill up 4-0.
The defense took over in the second quarter as neither team scored through the first 10 minutes until Wilcox got a breakaway down the right side of the field and scored on basically a one-on-one fast break.
The Jackets carried a 5-0 lead to the half and then opened the second half scoring about 95 seconds into the third quarter. Shia scored her second goal of the game and Sandler added another goal 30 seconds later. Sandler added a third goal four minutes later to put Fort Mill up 8-0.
Penalties put Catawba Ridge a couple players down which added to the Jackets’ opportunity. Bennett scored her second goal with about 5:30 left in the third quarter.
“It’s hard to play with two men down,” said Catawba Ridge head coach Patrick Gormley. “This is a learning experience for us. Our offense wasn’t on for us.”
Fort Mill took a 9-0 lead into the fourth quarter. Just 12 seconds into the period, Shia got a hat trick and started the running clock. Bennett then collected a hat trick with her third goal in the fourth quarter and added another one before the end of the game. Sandler also picked up a fourth goal in the final period.
Catawba Ridge prevented the shutout with a goal by Olivia Kendrick just under four minutes left and another goal by Ember Rosowski with about 2:15 left in the game.
Shia closed out the game with her fourth goal of the match in the closing seconds.
Fort Mill improved to 7-3 overall and Catawba Ridge fell to 4-5.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
