Quick Start Helps Mepham Girls Lacrosse Roll Past West Hempstead

The Mepham Lady Pirates lost their first game of the season to Bethpage Monday, but rebounded on Friday after doubling up the West Hempstead Lady Rams 14-7 in a non-league contest at Jerusalem Avenue Field.

The Lady Pirates put up six goals in the first eight minutes of the game, including a hat trick from sophomore Nicole Stackpole, to give themselves a comfortable lead.

West Hempstead responded with two goals from senior Ashley Merrill and one from junior Erin Guerrero to cut the lead in half.

Mepham's Michelle Olson gave her team a 7-3 lead before Guerrero and Merrill struck again for the Lady Rams.

But junior Jayme Batcher and sophomore Ashley Appell scored two late goals for the Lady Pirates for a 9-5 halftime lead.

Mepham outscored the Lady Rams 5-2 in the second half to cruise to the 14-7 win.

The Lady Pirates saw 14 goals scored from 10 different players in the win. On the other side of things, Merrill and Guerrero each finished with a hat trick to lead West Hempstead.

“It was a nice way to transition into Great Neck North, because that will tougher than this but not as hard as Bethpage," said Mepham head coach Geraldine O'Brien. "… It’s a nice confident boost after the loss.”

Score: Mepham 14, West Hempstead 7

Records: Mepham 1-1 (5-1); West Hempstead 0-1 (0-3)

Heroes: West's Hempstead's Guerrero finished with three goals and also set up two of Merrill's goals. She was strong on the draw and vocal on both offense and defense for the Lady Rams.

“Erin has really good stick skills. She’s coming along," said West Hempstead head coach Tracy Hutt. "It’s touch and go, but she has great skills and hopefully now, each and every game she’ll put up some more goals.”

The Lady Pirates had 10 goal scorers, but at the heart of their offense was senior captain Cristina Olson, who finished with two goals and a career-high five assists. She assisted on all of three of Stackpole's goals.

“She’s a great player," O'Brien said. "She’s a smart player, she’s strong and she’s not greedy as you can see by all of her assists.”

Turning Point: Merrill and Guerrero helped the Lady Rams charge right back into the game in the first half, but the two late goals from Batcher and Appel took any momentum away from West Hempstead at the half.

Quotable: “We’ve got a strong midfield and a balanced approach," O'Brien said. "We had 10 different girls score 14 goals … so that really helped."

Bottom Line: The Lady Rams failed to pick up their first win of the season, but Hutt said the game was a tremendous improvement from the previous two losses.

“We only had two games before this game. They showed a lot of improvement," she said. "The first two games we only scored [three] goals, so putting up seven goals is a nice job. My goalie is a freshman, so I really can’t ask for much more, I think she played tough.”

After the loss to Bethpage on Monday, the Lady Pirates spent the week practicing hard and used what they had learned in Friday's game.

“I think we did really well on attack," Cristina Olson said. "We were passing it around a lot, that’s what we’ve been practicing a lot – the different plays, cutting, and we tried to put that into the game today and I think that’s what helped.”