Middle Creek girls lacrosse wallops Green Hope

The Middle Creek girls lacrosse team stayed unbeaten after dismantling visiting Green Hope 16-2 Tuesday evening.

The Mustangs (7-0, 4-0) controlled the game after falling behind by one in the early minutes. Once they were able to slow the game down some, the Mustangs’ offense created a lot of chances, out-shooting Green Hope 19-8.

“We like to rush sometimes. In the first half when we were down, we needed to settle the ball down, work it around to get balanced and figure out what our next move was,” said Middle Creek attacker Madison Boudreau, who had a game-high four goals.

Green Hope (3-3, 2-2) stayed competitive for the first five minutes.

After allowing Megan Marschewski’s opening goal off the draw, the Falcons stormed back when Maddie McKinley scored just 32 seconds later. Alicia Brunetti scored with 19:54 left in the first half to give Green Hope an early 2-1 lead.

But three minutes later, Ellie White scored her first of two goals off a pass from Sam Caputo that began the rout.

“Anytime the game’s close, everyone is a little antsy. When are we going to break this open? Or when are they going to break it open? Once we started to calm down, spread it out, and relax, we were able to see things better and not force stuff,” said Mustangs coach Rosemarie Piccirillo.

Middle Creek opened the second half same way it did the first, getting into the offensive zone and scoring quickly. Kylie Adamson scored her lone goal 24 seconds into the second half.

The Mustangs also got big plays from goalie Haley Whitfield. The defense in front of her prevented a lot of scoring chances for Green Hope, but on the ones that got through, Whitfield stopped six of eight shots.

“There weren’t a lot of shots on goal, but the ones that were, Haley was able to stop,” Piccirillo said. “Our defense locked down their two best players, really did well sliding, they communicated well. They worked really well together. We give all the props to Haley. We have all the faith in the world in her.”

Turning point

After taking a 6-2 lead into halftime, the Mustangs’ offense struck quickly, scoring three goals in the first three minutes of the second half to stretch their lead.

They said it

“Even though we’re playing well right now and we’re winning, and that’s great, but I think we’ll see a better team fundamentally down the road, and that’s what we’re working on every day.” – Piccirillo

By the numbers

7: Points from Madison Boudreau.

8: Goal scorers for Middle Creek.

3 minutes, 41 seconds: The total time Green Hope had the lead.

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 12:44 AM with the headline "Middle Creek girls lacrosse wallops Green Hope."