Nation Ford’s Catherine Barhorst drives towards the goal as she helped to lead the Falcons Thursday night.

Six unanswered goals by the Ardrey Kell Knights added to the second half woes from the Nation Ford Falcons girls’ lacrosse team leading to their 13-9 loss Thursday night.

Nation Ford drops to 5-8 overall on the season and has one more regular season game left as they host Eastside Saturday, April 9.

The Falcons were led by Catherine Barhorst and Ann Windell both of which scored three goals in the game for hat tricks. Mia MacMillan, Hailey Weithoff and Georgia Sharpless also scored for Nation Ford.

Nation Ford led 6-3 at the half, but was outscored 9-6 in the second half.

“We do well in the first half and can’t continue that in the second half,” said Falcons’ head coach Kristine Schmidt. “We have a team that has potential.”

Against Ardrey Kell, Nation Ford started strong, but couldn’t keep the momentum in their corner. Windell started the scoring for the Falcons about five minutes in the first half, which tied the game at 1-1.

Nation Ford then rattled off three consecutive goals from MacMillan, Barhorst and Weithoff to grab a 4-1 lead. The Knights then pulled within one scoring two goals before Windell and Barhorst each scored their second goals of the game to make it 6-3.

In the second half, Ardrey Kell rattled off two goals to pull within one before Barhorst scored her final goal to make it 7-5 with Nation Ford clinging to the lead.

Sharpless scored her lone goal just under 20 minutes left in the game to make it 8-5, but the Falcons defense struggled to contain the Knights as they again came back to again pull within one. Windell scored her final goal with 18 minutes left in the game to make it 9-7, but again Nation Ford couldn’t hold off the last rally by Ardrey Kell with them taking the lead for good.

The Falcons aren’t currently in the playoff hunt, but could get an at-large bid, which would be their only way of making it in.

In other games…

The Nation Ford boys’ lacrosse team improved to 14-0 on the season with a 11-7 win over Mauldin on the road.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep

Nation Ford’s Mia MacMillan pressures an Ardrey Kell player during their game Thursday evening.