Big First Half Carries Burr & Burton Past Mount Greylock

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Take away a stretch of 9 minutes, 30 seconds at the end of the first half, and the Mount Greylock girls lacrosse team was pretty much even with visiting Burr & Burton on Friday at MCLA’s Shewcraft Field.

 

But that little stretch made a big difference as the Bulldogs used a 5-0 run to open up an 11-4 half-time lead en route to a 15-9 win over the Mounties.

 

Mount Greylock coach Lindsey von Holtz was disappointed with the outcome but glad to see her team respond after falling behind by seven goals to win the second half by a 5-4 margin.

 

“I’m incredibly proud of them from beginning to end,” von Holtz said. “We struggled to get our marks in the beginning, and they had a really fast transition.

 

“But at the same time, I still thought we were playing really well. We were much better on ground balls than we’ve been doing. We were doing well on collapsing. It was a lot of things we were doing really well on. So I was really excited about this game.”

 

Olivia Watanabe scored six goals, and Blair Powers had four.

 

Three of Watanabe’s tallies came right after Carolyn Jones scored off a pass from Claire Sheedy (three goals, one assist) with 9:55 left in the first half to cut Burr & Burton’s lead to 6-4.

 

Watanabe scored again with 31 seconds left before the break to make it 11-4.

 

In the second half, the teams traded runs.

 

First, Mount Greylock got tallies from Sheedy with a player advantage and Delaney Babcock on a couple of free position chances to get back within four goals at 11-7.

 

Then the Bulldogs answered with three straight to push it back to a 14-7 lead with 11:04 on the clock.

 

Brooke Masse scored on a free position, and Babcock completed her hat trick to wrap up Mount Greylock’s scoring before she left the game with an apparent leg injury in the closing minutes.

 

“We obviously hope that gets better,” von Holtz said. “It was exciting for her -- she hasn’t been on the attack side of the field too much. She’s just starting to get there this year, so to have a couple of goals I’m sure made her excited.

 

“But it probably wouldn’t have been possible without other midfielders and people helping out and moving the ball to get it there.”

 

It also helped that Mount Greylock tightened up its defense after intermission.

 

“I think we did a better job of marking up in the second half,” von Holtz said. “I also think we did a better job of not only seeing cutters but seeing the ball at the same time. We’ve struggled to do that. … We did a better job of being able to see both so that person couldn’t go on their own to goal without having somebody there.”

 

Jayden Johnson and Autumn Delorey split time in goal for the Mounties (4-3), who host West Springfield on Tuesday.