The Nation Ford Lady Falcons lacrosse team rolled to their sixth win of the season against the Indian Land Warriors.
The Falcons won 22-3 improving to 6-1 on the season. Nation Ford won just two matches last season, as first year head coach Greg Allen said the success comes from off the field.
“The biggest thing for me is conditioning,” Allen said. “Everything stems from that. If we don’t condition at the level we need to, the stick feels like 100 pounds by halftime. I want to be able to play all four quarters. We run them a lot. They have bought into the system. They are working hard. They never complain. They have the right mindset.”
Allen said he knows that cross-town rival Fort Mill is the standard and that is what they are striving to be like. Nation Ford, who was ranked No. 1 earlier this year before their first loss of the season earlier this week to Ardrey Kell, is now ranked fourth in 5A, according to Max Preps.
“It is about building a program,” he said. “This group has the potential to make a run at that.”
Allen said his current goal is to make it to the second round of the state playoffs this season, but isn’t looking too far ahead when it comes to Region 3-5A play.
“If we don’t make it to the second round, I won’t consider it a successful season,” he said. “I know what we have talent wise. We are shooting for that and then some.”
It took a while for the Falcons to get going as Nation Ford didn’t score until almost four minutes into play as Brooke Hufnagel scored with 8:12 left in the first quarter. Once they were able to score, the flood gates opened. The Falcons added goals from Arielle Pall, Canaan Ross, Kyrie Sund to go up 4-0 over the next three minutes.
Indian Land snuck a goal in with about four minutes left in the first quarter, only for Nation Ford’s Caitlyn Stolarek to comeback and score 12 seconds later. Lily Burrage, Addie Allen, and Riley Gibson added goals before the end of the opening period to go up 8-1.
The Falcons opened the second quarter like they closed the first scoring two quick goals from Ava Mayes and Kennedy DeWaele.
The Warriors scored their second goal of the game little over a minute later, but that didn’t deter Nation Ford as Haley Pettit scored for the home team. DeWaele scored her second goal of the match 65 seconds later to put the Falcons up 12-2 and start a running clock. Nation Ford added two more goals before the half as Liberty Dilley scored and Ross added her second goal at the halftime buzzer.
Maggie Wakefield started the second half off for the Falcons scoring 14 seconds into the third quarter. Stolarek scored her second of the match two minutes later. Burrage added the 17th Nation Ford goal of the match and her second one just under five minutes left in the third quarter. Calle Evans scored a goal for the Falcons with less than three minutes remaining in the period to put Nation Ford up 18-2 heading to the fourth quarter.
The Falcons’ Stolarek opened the fourth quarter with a goal about a minute into play to give her a hat trick. Sund got her second of the match with less than seven minutes remaining in regulation. Sarah Kinley and Holland Greer added goals for Nation Ford before the end of the match.
Up next for Nation Ford is another North Carolina opponent in Porter Ridge on Tuesday, March 17.
March 12 Roundup
The Nation Ford boys’ tennis team beat Clover 6-0 to improve to 5-0 on the season.
The Fort Mill boys’ tennis team beat Indian Land 6-0 improving to 4-1 on the season. Winning for Fort Mill was Liam Marriott, Lucas Coelho, Jethin Bastin, Ishaan Amjath, Sawyer Bryan and in doubles Brandon Behrman and Jackson Bradley.
The Catawba Ridge boys’ tennis team beat Rock Hill 5-1 to improve to 4-3 overall on the season.
The Catawba Ridge boys’ golf team won their first dual match of the season beating York 163-182 and are 1-0 on the season. Roman Vasicko led with a 39, followed by a 40 from Niam Sethi and a 41 from Carter Mitten. Muller Otto finished with a 43.
The Catawba Ridge girls’ soccer team beat Ballantyne Ridge 3-1 on the road to improve to 5-1-2 on the season.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
