After two regular series games between the teams, the third game Tuesday evening meant the most.
Fort Mill beat Nation Ford 12-3 to open the 5A girls’ lacrosse playoffs advancing to the next round Thursday where they will take on the Byrnes Rebels at Bob Jones Stadium. Fort Mill improved to 11-5 overall. Fort Mill won both regular season contest against the Falcons.
“Our seniors knew what was on the line,” said Fort Mill Kirsten Terry. “Our team was really excited to get out there. After Myers Park (loss) last week, they wanted to get started.”
Nation Ford closed out their season with a 12-5 record.
“We had a few mistakes to start,” said Nation Ford head coach Emily Daly. “Once they got started we couldn’t catch up.”
Fort Mill cracked the board first with a goal by CeCe Shia at about 9:30 in the opening period.
Grace Sandler added a Fort Mill goal less than 30 seconds later and Shia scored her second goal in less than a minute to quickly give the Jackets a 3-0 lead.
Nation Ford got on the board with a penalty shot that found the back of the net by Caitlyn Stolarek.
Fort Mill would take a 3-1 lead to the second quarter. The Jackets went 54 seconds into play before Molly Bennett scored for the Jackets.
Sandler came back a couple minutes later scoring her second goal of the game to extend Fort Mill’s lead, which forced Nation Ford into a timeout.
The Jackets’ time of possession played a big issue for Fort Mill. Taylor Wilcox scored a goal with about seven minutes left to even further extend their lead.
Shia got a hat trick for Fort Mill with five minutes remaining which was all the first half scoring as the Jackets went into the half up 7-1.
Sandler secured a hat trick just two minutes into the third quarter to open the scoring for Fort Mill.
Nation Ford kept fighting as Catherine Barhorst scored with eight minutes left in the period. It was her record 249th career goal.
Sandler didn’t give time for the Falcons to start any momentum as she scored a minute later. If anything, Fort Mill kept the momentum in their corner as Shia scored her fourth goal with five minutes left in the quarter.
Scoring slowed in the fourth quarter as Fort Mill continued to control possession. That allowed them to finally score as Bennett scored her second goal about 3:10 left in the game.
Georgia Sharpless scored for Nation Ford with about 2:30 left to make things look better for the Falcons.
Bennett would add another goal to get a hat trick with 13.5 second remaining to close things out for Fort Mill.
April 16 Roundup
The Catawba Ridge boys’ tennis team beat Northwestern 5-1 in Region 3-4A action. Winning for the Copperheads was Wayden Uter 6-4,7-6; Ishaan Singh 6-1, 6-1; Koen Tesimale 6-3, 6-1; Jacob Thompson 6-0, 6-1; and Trevor Steverson and Hadden Richardson in doubles 6-1, 6-2.
The Catawba Ridge boys’ golf team beat both Clover and Nation Ford at River Hills Golf Club. The Copperheads shot a 158 and was led by a 36 from OT Mitchell. His score was followed with a 38 from Niam Sethi and a 41 from Hunter Warren. Drew White finished the scoring for Catawba Ridge with a 43. Clover shot a 161 and Nation Ford shot a 176 and was led by Oliver Lapointe with a 39. Conner Mills shot a 43 for Nation Ford, while James Wachtel finished with a 46 and Stephen Deaton finished with a 48 for the Falcons.
The Fort Mill softball team lost to Clover 17-2 to drop to 5-7 overall and 4-5 in Region 3-5A. Clover had a big second inning scoring 10 runs to pace the Blue Eagles. Vicki Lott and Brooke Rosario each had two hits for Fort Mill.
The Nation Ford softball team beat Spring Valley 18-0 to improve to 10-3 overall and 6-0 in Region 3-5A. The Falcons had 19 hits including a 4-4 game from Abigail Loser with three RBIs and a 3-4 game from Paizlei Ross with four RBIs. Jackie Knol went 2-2 with a home run and three RBIs.
The Catawba Ridge softball team improve to 17-1 with an 11-1 win over Northwestern. They are also 8-0 in Region 3-4A.
The Fort Mill girls’ soccer team fell 1-0 to Clover to drop to 4-5 in Region 3-5A and 6-10-2 overall.
The Nation Ford girls’ soccer team beat Spring Valley 5-0 to improve to 10-6 overall and 6-3 in Region 3-5A.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
