North Girls Lacrosse Falls to South, 20-9

The Lady Rams competed in a big  Lacrosse game against their sister school Clarkstown South on Thursday.

They played hard through to the end, however, they were outmatched by the Vikings and their consistent execution on the offensive and defensive ends.  Their opposition's smothering defensive presence forced the Rams to turnover the ball on numerous occasions.  North's failure to execute on the offensive end gave the Vikings many scoring opportunities, which they made use of with effective passing and penetration.  Though goalie Nicole Strauss made many excellent saves, the sheer number of Viking goal attempts allowed for the final score of 20-9 in favor of South.

The Vikings won the draw to start the game and penetrated quickly to shoot, however Strauss was able to come up with her first save of fourteen for the game.  After blocking two more goal attempts, Strauss forced a pass through tough coverage into one of her teammates.  This was intercepted and followed by an immediate shot before her teammates could get back on defense.  Strauss again came up with the save, which she followed with another, before a final Viking shot attempt resulted in  a goal.

The Rams retaliated with a goal of their own off of a running attack just over twenty seconds after the initial goal.  After exchanging goals to bring the score to 3-2 Vikings with fourteen minutes left in the half,  South then went on a run.  The Rams had difficulty getting open for passes due to the scrappy defense of the Vikings.  This resulted in turnovers which  brought the score to 7-2.  The Rams seemed to settle down at this point, setting up, passing and penetrating to score with 5:16 left on the clock.  The Vikings fired back after the draw with a goal of their own from the crease. 

The Rams defense buckled down to close out the half.  After forcing a turnover, they transitioned quickly to offense, moved the ball around the perimeter and passed into #12 Heather Jones who immediately attacked and got fouled.  After the whistle, she shot from mid-range and scored the final goal of the half with 1:08 on the clock.  This brought the score to a manageable deficit for the Rams of  8-4 in favor of the Vikings.

To start the second half, it was again the Vikings that won the draw and transitioned quickly to score.  The Rams came back with a vengeance, won the draw and went on the attack.  After passing once around the perimeter, it was in the hands of #21 Bridget Kunz, who shot to score from the crease.  The Vikings won the draw next, however Strauss had a great save to make it North ball.  They then ran it back, flying through the defense who promptly made the foul.  #1 Jenna Wolchock got the ball off the inbounds pass, penetrated, jumped, shot, and scored to close the gap to 9-6.

The game fell apart for the Rams after this.  South proceeded to finish the half by scoring eleven goals to North's three.   While individually they still made some good plays, the Rams had difficulty working together as a team, which resulted in the majority of their turnovers.  This was brought on in a major way by the smothering defensive presence of the Vikings, who were able to then transition quickly into an unrelenting offense and get the open looks at the goal.

The game was followed up with a heart-felt ceremony to honor the seniors on both teams.  Each girl on the Vikings presented the senior Rams with flowers.  After this, the younger Vikings honored their departing seniors by presenting their sentiments and amusing anecdotes in short rhymes.