Decatur Girls Fall to Easton, 15-13, in OT

Decatur Girls Fall to Easton, 15-13, in OT
layla fowler

BERLIN- Stephen Decatur’s girls’ varsity lacrosse team fell to host Easton, 15-13, in overtime last week for their first loss to the Warriors in seven years.

Decatur led most of the way against Easton on the road on Friday before allowing two late goals with under a minute remaining to tie the score and send the game into overtime. Easton scored twice in the extra period to earn their first win over the Seahawks since 2006.

Easton got out to a quick 2-0 lead before the travel weary Seahawks came to life. Decatur scored three quick goals, the last coming on a goal by Payton VanKirk on an assist from Blair Yesko, to take a 3-2 lead they would not relinquish until overtime. The Seahawks took a 5-3 lead into halftime on a goal by Layla Fowler off an assist from Ashley Trice.

Easton pulled to within one on a quick goal at the start of the second half to cut the lead to 5-4. Decatur then went on a run of its own, scoring five times within 11 minutes during which five different players scored to take what appeared to be a commanding 10-4 lead about halfway through the second half. The reeling Warriors then called a timeout which proved to be a turning point in the contest.

Just 13 seconds after the timeout, Easton scored to cut the lead to 10-5 with a lot of time left. The Warriors would score two more times during the sequence to cut the lead to 10-7. Decatur stopped Easton’s mini-run with a goal by Elle Bargar to extend the lead to 11-7, but Easton came right back and scored quickly to cut the lead to 11-8. Trice scored for Decatur with about seven minutes left in the game to extend the lead to 12-8.

The relentless Warriors would not roll over, however. Easton scored three straight to cut the Decatur lead to 12-11 with 3:40 left in the game. With the clock ticking down, Trice scored again for Decatur with 45 seconds left to push the lead to a seemingly insurmountable 13-11 with almost no time remaining.

Decatur won the ensuing draw and only needed to kill about 40 seconds with a two goal lead to escape with a win. However, instead of safely passing the ball around the perimeter to kill the clock, the Seahawks took an ill-advised shot that was blocked and recovered by Easton and the Warriors went straight down the field to score to cut the lead to 13-12. Easton won the ensuing midfield draw and weaved through the Decatur defense to score the game-tying goal with just 14 seconds left of send the contest into overtime.

In the extra period, the Seahawks had little left after the emotional comeback by Easton and the Warriors scored two times to seal the amazing 15-13 overtime win. With the loss, the Seahawks fell to 6-2 on the season, their only other defeat coming at the hands of unbeaten Queen Anne’s last week. Decatur finishes out the season with three games against Bayside South foes including Parkside in the season finale. The Seahawks edged the Rams, 5-4, in the season opener.