After a long exchange of goals in the first half, the Aragon girls’ lacrosse team (4-8 overall, 2-6 Skyline League) broke the stalemate with three goals in the last eight minutes of their senior game to defeat Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School (6-9 overall, 2-8 SL) 9-7 on May 3.
A key element in Aragon’s success was their precise ball control. The Dons won three out of the last four faceoffs and rebounded three shots in a row before making their second to last goal.
“We were a bit slow to start, but we won the ground ball battle for the most part in the second half”
“There is a lot of us working together,” said senior team captain and attacker Jessica Traver.
“Just simple things like calling names, going for the ball, setting up and being where you were supposed to be on certain plays.”
With their improved cooperation, the Dons were able to mobilize a large part of their offense with four players, including freshman midfielder Lilly Loghmani, scoring at least two goals each.
“I don’t think there was one particular leader on the offense,” Loghmani said. “Everybody contributed with passing ground balls and shooting. That’s one of our most effective strategies, [and it] is because we have a lot of good girls who can score good goals.“
However, Sacred Heart was able to match Aragon with a similar offensive strategy.
“We know sometimes when our energy gets a little bit low, we lose those basics“
“Sacred Heart was actually a pretty balanced team,” said head coach Kalyn Olson. “It wasn’t just about shutting down one player, but about making sure that we had that second defender after the first threat shut down, so that we weren’t opening up second and third opportunities for Sacred Heart.”
The Dons were able to make the needed adjustments to push back against Sacred Heart’s offense.
“Traditionally when we have a new opponents in the league, we are looking for the biggest scoring threat,” Olson said. “Defense was able to make some adjustments, was more solid coming into the second half and kept [Sacred Heart] to only two goals [in that half].”
After ending the first half down 5-4, Aragon was able to surge into the lead after a time-out called in the second half. The Dons then took the lead from a tied 6-6 to their final score of 9-7 in the last eight minutes of the game.
