CHS girls’ lacrosse nabs playoff spot after 3-0-1 finish
By Jay TurnerDown to their final four games and needing at least two wins and a tie to clinch a postseason berth, the Canton High girls’ lacrosse team went out and took care of business last week at home, cruising past Sharon and Oliver Ames and battling first-place Foxboro to a 9-9 draw to punch their ticket to the Division 2 south sectional tournament.
Meghan Lennon scored her 200th career goal in the regular season finale. (Mike Barucci photo)
The resurgent Bulldogs also out-dueled Norwood in Monday’s regular season finale and will head into the playoffs with an overall record of 9-7-2 and plenty of momentum on their side. They also happen to boast one of the region’s most prolific scorers in senior captain Meghan Lennon, who recently surpassed the 200-goal plateau after a blistering four-game stretch.
Lennon now has an incredible 68 goals on the season, including five or more in each of the three games last week as well as the go-ahead goal against Norwood with only 20 seconds left in the game.
Head coach Chris Murtagh described that game as a “tale of two halves” as Canton had raced out to an 11-4 lead before eventually squeaking by with a 16-15 win on Lennon’s late-game heroics.
“We knew Norwood was a very good team and it was just a matter of when they were going to wake up,” said Murtagh. “It was like we played two different games.”
Senior captain Jen Martin and junior Jackie Merrigan paced the Bulldogs with three goals in the victory, while Lennon finished with a pair — the 200th and 201st of her career.
As for last week’s games, the Bulldogs once again proved why they are one of the top teams in the Hockomock League as they dominated both Sharon (17-9) and OA (21-9) and nearly pulled off an upset against a one-loss Foxboro squad.
Hosting the Warriors last Wednesday at the CHS turf field, the girls found themselves locked in a defensive battle and trailing by a pair of goals in the second half before storming back to tie the game at nine-all.
Lennon finished with a team-high five goals in the game, including the equalizer with 1:20 remaining. Senior Kaitlin Phillips had two goals, while Mary McNeil and Erin Proctor added one apiece.
The Canton defense also came up big in the game, led by goalie Isabelle Hegland (10 saves) and senior captain Amanda Crowley.
“We talk about heroes of our team, [Crowley] has been a rock for us,” said Murtagh. “Unfortunately, there are no statistics for how many passes she has blocked, or how many times she’s directed our defense to crash on a shooter. But Amanda’s had a tremendous impact on our team this year.”
“All three of our captains have really been an amazing part of this turnaround,” he added. “We’re starting to play the kind of lacrosse I always knew we could play.”
Murtagh also singled out the play of Merrigan, who he said has had a “phenomenal” season at center and had another big week in the scoring department, tallying a combined 10 goals in the wins against Sharon and OA. Other key contributors who figured in the scoring last week were seniors Kaitlin Phillips and Meaghan McKenna and junior Sam Sullivan.
Now firing on all cylinders, the girls will await their seeding in the upcoming sectional tournament, which gets underway early next week.
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=20750
Posted by Jay Turner
on May 23 2013. Filed under High School, Sports.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
