Lauren Cullen
Managing Editor
In a blowout game against Lexington High School, the Westford Academy Varsity Girls’ Lacrosse team won 18-3 in the first round of the MIAA East Division I playoffs.
Going into the game, WA was seeded fifth in the league and Lexington twelfth. Senior Captain Jenna Klinka said not much was known about Lexington’s team.
“We knew only that we had to give it everything today,” Klinka said. “Especially with it being playoffs we knew we had to take it seriously and work very hard.”
The game started off strong when senior Cathryn Sennott scored 34 seconds after the first face-off. After a few minutes of contest at midfield, junior Allie Skahen scored with an assist from senior Stacy Shackleton.
WA kept up their aggressive offense and scored another three goals before Lexington called a timeout halfway through the first half.
After their timeout ended, Lexington managed a breakaway down the field and their captain Jillian Jandl scored with twelve minutes left in the first half.
Seconds after Lexington’s first goal, freshman Haley Cogliano scored unassisted. Within the next three minutes, senior captains Erica Mattila and Hailey MacDonald both scored before Cogliano made another two goals to make the score 9-1 WA.
Lexington went on to score for the second time in the first half on another breakaway play with five minutes to go in the half.
WAGLat the end of their game
WA quickly struck back and scored three goals before Cogliano scored her fourth goal of the game with .3 seconds in the half, bringing the score to 13-2 WA.
Shackleton scored her third goal of the night seconds into the second half for WA. Lexington then rallied to make their third and last goal of the game.
After a timeout called by WA, Lexington’s defense became noticeably more aggressive. That still did not
stop WA senior Rebecca Sennott from scoring, which brought the score to 15-3 with WA still in the lead.
Senior goalie Kalie Boyd had two amazing saves in a row, stopping two of Jandl’s attempts to score.
With nine minutes left in the game, the Lexington defense was trying their best to stop the passing between WA’s offensive players, which led to Lexington’s final breakaway of the night. However, Rebecca Sennott was able to interfere with one of Lexington’s passes and tore down the field toward Lexington’s net.
After this play, Shackleton scored yet again,and seconds later, Mattila scored as well. This brought the score to 17-3 with seven minutes to go in the game.
After several minutes of play at midfield, Habosian was able to score on an amazing buzzer-beating, breakaway play with .1 seconds left.
The final score was 18-3 WA with standout players Cogliano, Shackleton, Boyd, and Habosian. Senior Allia Connolly also played tough defense, something Mattila credits part of WA’s success today to.
Mattila said she believes that not knowing too much about Lexington’s team was probably beneficiary to WA in the long run.
“That way we can just play our game and set the tempo off the first whistle,” she said. “Which is what we did. We’ve all been working really hard in practice and it’s great to see[a win]”.
WA is set to travel to Acton-Boxborough Friday afternoon for a 4 o’clock game in the second round of playoffs.
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