Westfield’s Mary Boudreau, right foreground, battles a pair of Belchertown defenders during Friday night’s game at Belchertown. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – The Westfield High School girls’ lacrosse team put up a good fight until the very end, losing on the season’s final day to Belchertown 13-10 Friday.
The loss kept the Bombers (9-10) out of the postseason.
“If a couple of our shots go in it’s a whole new game,” Westfield coach Paul Fenwick said. “In the end we came just a little bit short.”
Belchertown built a 4-1 lead, but it could have been even more as Bombers’ goalie Tori Meneses (15 saves) turned away a flurry of additional shots.
Westfield bounced back several times, pulling even 5-5 with back-to-back goals from Mackenzie Millikan (hat trick) late in the first half. Belchertown reclaimed the lead 6-5, and dodged a bullet turning away Brittany Hutchison’s shot at the halftime buzzer.
As play resumed in the second half, Ashlee O’Connor swept a shot into the net on a low wrister to knot the game at 6-6.
Belchertown regained control with a pair of goals within about a 60-second span. Bri Silva scored with 19:06 remaining to bring Westfield’s deficit to one. The Orioles quickly responded, bringing the gap to two goals. Hutchison made an acrobatic shot to cut it to one again, leaping and flipping a shot into the net with 14:55 left. Millikan tied it 9-9 about a minute later.
With just over 12 minutes remaining, Belchertown jumped ahead 10-9.
Mary Boudreau, after tallying two goals early, looked to complete the hat trick on a tying goal for Westfield with 10 minutes remaining but Belchertown goalie Abbey Holden came up with the key save. The Orioles went on to tally two more goals to pull away.
Both teams exchanged goals in the last two minutes.
St. Mary 18, Cathedral 13
Andrea Watson scored seven goals and lent an assist on another to lead St. Mary. Saints’ Lauren Chapdelaine (4 goals), Taylor Marshall (3 goals, 2 assists), Aisling Smith (2 goals, assist), Bella Butler (goal, 2 assists), and Miranda Areana (goal) also chipped in offensively.
St. Mary goalie Karissa Foley collected 17 saves.
