West Lacrosse Defeats Clayton in Thrilling OT Win

For most of the April 14 girls varsity lacrosse match between Clayton High and host , the most unstoppable player on the field was Clayton’s Kyleigh Smith.

A 6’1” bruiser on the field, Smith scored five goals for the Greyhounds, and often was too physical for the Wildcats to handle.

But that was during regulation play.

In overtime, it was West’s 5’5” sophomore Brittany Monroe who proved unstoppable, scoring two of her career-high five goals to lead the Wildcats to a thrilling 10-9 sudden death win.

“I’m so excited for my girls,” West head coach, Mike Vaughn, said. “They played so hard and worked so hard.

"They really deserved this win and I’m very proud of them.”

West was able to secure the win on one of the flukiest plays one might ever see in a lacrosse match.

Monroe took a pass from teammate Lia Hannenburg, and made a hard charge toward the Clayton net. Two Greyhound defenders stood between Monroe and the goal, but the diminutive attacker fired a shot anyway.

Or maybe misfired is a better way to describe Monroe’s score attempt, as the ball fluttered out of her goal stick and meekly bounced towards the Clayton goal.

Clayton keeper Thalia Sass lunged to her left expecting a hard shot from Monroe. But instead, the shot bounced to Sass’ right and into the net for the game-winning score for West.

“That was one of those lucky plays in sports where you just say, ‘I can’t believe that just happened’,” Vaughn said. “But it did, and we’re all ecstatic about it." 

The victory was West’s fourth in a row, after five losses in a row. That fifth straight loss was a against No. 1-ranked Ladue Horton Watkins High School. But Vaughn said that’s when his team finally believed it could compete.

“That was the day when the girls finally learned that they could play against the good teams,” Vaughn said. “And even though we lost 14-1, we just kept pushing and things finally started clicking.

"Our transitions were there, our passes are there (and) we’re just clicking on all cylinders right now.”

Monroe's breakthrough performance didn’t hurt either.

She had her first career hat trick in regulation play when West led 8-7 in the final minutes, before Clayton’s Smith tied the game with a brilliant goal from the right side of West’s net.

Neither team scored in the first overtime. But Monroe gave her team the lead when she scored on another Hannenburg.

That gave West a 9-8 lead with 1:36 left in the second overtime. It looked like that lead might hold up for the Wildcats, but Smith tied the game again with 51.5 seconds left and sent it to the sudden death period.

Clayton had two early chances to win in sudden death, when fouls were called on the West defense near its own net. But both times Clayton couldn’t convert, and allowed West to eventually gain possession where Hannenburg and Monroe teamed up to win the game.

“Everybody’s on the same page now,” Vaughn said. “This group, they all like each other, they play for each other.

"They know what each other’s gonna do, and everybody plays a part" he said. "That’s what’s so exciting about us winning here today.”

Today, April 18, the Wildcats will take on rival host Hazelwood East at 4 p.m. Then on Thursday, April 21, West will host O’Fallon High (Ill.)  at 4:15 p.m.

“It’s so much fun right now,” Vaughn said. “They’re appreciating each other. They’re appreciating the game. It’s really fun to be around this team right now.”