MIDDLEBURY — Neither the host No. 7 Middlebury Union High School girls’ lacrosse team nor No. 10 Mount Anthony showed well in Tuesday’s first half of a first-round Division I playoff game held on Middlebury College’s cold, wet and slippery Kohn Field.
But the 8-7 Tigers took charge with better poise and fundamentals in the second half, including breaking a 4-4 tie with four goals from four players in 4:36 in what proved to be a convincing 12-6 victory over a team that had defeated them during the regular season.
Six Tigers scored, led by three apiece from senior attacker Emily Laframboise and senior midfielders Lacey Greenamyre and Ada Anderson. Junior middie Malia Hodges and freshman middie Carlisle Brush each added a goal and an assist, and junior Phoebe Smith contributed the transition strike that capped the big second-half run.
Even while the Tigers were dropping the ball and throwing passes away in the first half, the defense and goalie Lydia Deppman, who made three of her four saves in the early going to deny the 6-10 Patriots momentum, held fast.
Sophomore Kaitlyn McNamara, who works as the backer in the Tiger zone to pick up cutters near the goal, junior Taylor Moulton, and freshmen Ivy Doran and Fairley Olson all did good work.
Laframboise, a captain along with Greenamyre and Anderson, pointed to the effort in the back.
“The defense did a really good job,” she said. “They just didn’t let anything in. I think also our goalie, Lydia, did a really great job today. She killed it.”
Both Laframboise and Coach Brandi Whittemore spoke afterward about the Tigers huddling at halftime and focusing on their fundamentals, the best example of which might have come when they controlled the ball to take more than two minutes off the clock before Anderson buried a goal in the final seconds.
“At halftime we talked about the things we could control and we know how to do well,” Whittemore said. “Passing and catching was one of them.”
In the opening half both teams struggled to hold onto the ball. The Patriots got off the first and third shots, but Deppman stopped both Tess Hastings and Avery Galle. In between, Greenamyre gave MUHS the lead 2:46 in by capitalizing on an MAU turnover at midfield and racing in to beat Patriot goalie Sophia Kipp.
Deppman then stopped Galle, and the Tigers began to press. Kipp (eight saves) made three stops, but couldn’t deny a Laframboise spin move at 13:18.
MIDDLEBURY MIDFIELDERS MALIA Hodges (21) and Ada Anderson (2) battle Mount Anthony players for a high ball in the first half of Tuesday’s Tiger playoff game played at Middlebury College.
Independent photo/Steve James
MAU cut it to 2-1 on a Caroline Musinski free position at 7:18, but Greenamyre won the draw to Anderson, and she raced in to make it 3-1 eight seconds later. Greenamyre helped the Tigers win 15 of 20 draws, and Anderson controlled nine of them.
The teams traded goals as the half wound down, with Musinski scoring from Galle, and Laframboise netting a Brush feed to make it 4-2.
The Tigers controlled play early in the second half, but a Kipp saves and a Greenamyre shot off her goalpost allowed MAU to tie the game at 4-4 at 20:26 on two Abby Farrington goals, one a fluke in which the ball bounced in at 20:26 during a goalmouth scramble.
MUHS SOPHOMORE GOALIE Lydia Deppman can’t stop this Mount Anthony attacker from scoring in front in the first half of Tuesday’s Tiger playoff game at Middlebury College.
Independent photo/Steve James
Then MUHS took control with the four-goal run. Laframboise started it with a free position at 19:55. Hodges cruised in from the left side at 19:30, and at 15:54 Brush weaved into the fan and found the back of the net. At 14:15 Smith netted her transition strike on a crisp feed from Hodges on a two-on-one break that started when the defense forced a turnover.
Galle made it 8-5 at 12:03, but Greenamyre answered with a solo move a minute later, and the Tigers cruised home.
The Tigers will next take on No. 2 Burr & Burton Academy (12-3) in a Friday afternoon quarterfinal. The Tigers lost at BBA on May 13, but only in overtime, 14-13, and were shorthanded and hit the post with a potential game-winning shot in the extra session. A win there would probably mean a semifinal at No. 3 Rice (11-4), a team they defeated, 10-5, on April 29.
TIGER JUNIOR MIDFIELDER Malia Hodges shoots for goal during Middlebury Union High School’s playoff game against Mount Anthony played in the rain on Middlebury College’s artificial turf on Tuesday. MUHS advanced to the next round of the playoffs.
Independent photo/Steve James
Laframboise said the Tigers, winners of the past two D-II titles but hard-hit by graduation, are excited for another shot at BBA.
“We’re really, really pumped. Burr & Burton, I think we were definitely shining out there. It was such a fun game,” she said. “It’s going to be a good game.”
Whittemore said she is looking forward to seeing if the Tigers can maintain their momentum.
“Anything can happen. It’s a matter of who shows up,” Whittemore said. “I think they’re ready, and they want it. I’m excited to see what happens.”
Andy Kirkaldy may be reached at [email protected].