Wolverines Earn Championship Rematch with Longmeadow (Video)

The top-ranked Westwood Wolverines are heading back to a place they are extremely familiar with: The State Title Game.

The varsity girls lacrosse team got there Tuesday evening by defeating the Lincoln-Sudbury Warriors 15-7 at Wellesley College, a team they already beat once at home in the regular season, 21-11.

“They are just very strong all over the field," said L-S coach Deb DeJesus about the undefeated Wolverines. “They have a lot of good athletes and they are very skilled and they walk on this field with confidence.”

Westwood will square off against the winner from the West, Longmeadow, who handed Westwood its only tie this season, and who fell victim to the Wolverines in both the 2008 and 2009 title games.

“It’s never an old hat,” said Westwood head coach Leslie Frank about heading back to the title game for the third time in four years. “Every time you have a team, you work for that team, and it’s all about that team coming together and winning.”

Westwood jumped out to a quick 4-0 against L-S lead within the first seven minutes, thanks to a hat trick by Emily McGrail, immediately prompting a Warrior timeout.

“It was just the urge to how much we wanted it,” said McGrail. “Every time we got the ball, we were thinking either go to goal or pass to try and get each other open.”

Out of the timeout however, the Warriors bounced back with three straight goals from Abby Quirk, Madison Acton and Rachel Sexton and hung with Westwood for the entirety of the half. Westwood took an 8-5 lead into the intermission and barely out-shot L-S, 14-12.

The Warriors continued to bring the pressure to open the second half and maintained the three-goal deficit 15 minutes in thanks to scores from Sexton and Jenna Kabat.

The Wolverine defense and goaltending just proved to be too much down the stretch, as Westwood dominated possession time and limited L-S shots.

“I think (Lincoln-Sudbury) was getting a little nervous as the score spread and they were forcing, and that just helped us,” said Frank.

Westwood goalie Mollie Brown played her heart out, as she shutout the Warriors’ offense for the final 13 minutes, and stopped five of seven shots she faced in the half.

“Mollie did phenomenal and I can thank her enough," said McGrail. “She had the game of her life and I couldn’t have asked for a better time to have a great game. She really shut everyone down.”

Meanwhile, while the backfield was putting on a clinic, Laura McHoul capped a 5-0 Westwood run with three goals in the final 10 minutes and put an end to Lincoln-Sudbury’s impressive playoff run. McHoul finished with six goals, matching McGrail to lead the team. Kate Rich added the other three for Westwood. Rachel Sexton and Madison Acton each had two for L-S. 

Brown finished the game with nine saves and Warrior goalie Katie Boyle had five.

The championship game will take place Friday evening at Foley Stadium in Worcester, and even though Westwood didn’t lose against Longmeadow back in May, Brown said she feels that revenge is due.

“I definitely know we can beat them,” Brown said. “We just had so many opportunities the last time we played them that this game I think we’ll come out looking for revenge and getting back at them and we just want to win that State Championship.”

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