BERLIN- Worcester Prep’s girls’ varsity lacrosse team rode a decisive stretch through the end of the first half to outlast visiting Calverton, 17-9, on Monday for their seventh straight win.
Worcester’s Karlie Southcomb scores to continue a five-goal run for the Mallards that would prove to be the difference in a 17-9 win over Calverton.
Photo by Shawn Soper
The Mallards got out to an early lead and were ahead, 4-1, before Calverton scored with just under 14 minutes remaining in the first half to cut the lead to 4-2. That was as close as it would get as the Worcester girls cranked up the offensive machine through the rest of the period.
With 11:30 remaining in the first, Grace Tunis stole a clear attempt by the Calverton goalkeeper and fired a shot home to extend the lead to 5-2. With 8:40 left in the first, Marissa Grosso found Karlie Southcomb with a beautiful assist on the crease and Southcomb finished it off to push the lead to 6-2.
Worcester’s Julie Talbert fires home a goal during the first half against Calverton on Monday.
Photo by Shawn Soper
Less than a minute later, Tunis found Gracie Gardner, who was posting up on the crease and Gardner finished the nice look pass to extend the lead to 7-2 with 7:56 remaining. It was a trend that repeated itself during Worcester’s big run. With 7:32 remaining, Tunis, operating from behind the goal, found a cutting Julie Talbert to push the lead to 8-2.
Leigh Lingo returned the favor, finding Tunis open with a nice pass in traffic to extend the lead to 9-2 with 5:25 remaining. Calverton stopped the bleeding briefly with a direct penalty shot goal with 3:25 left in the first to cut the lead to 9-3. However, Worcester kept the pressure up and added to their lead heading into the half.
Grosso found Katie Emche cutting across the middle and Emche converted to extend the lead to 10-3 with 2:30 left in the first. Emche scored about a minute later to push the lead to 11-3. With just 33 second left in the first, Tunis found Emche again, who scored her third goal in the span of about two minutes and the Mallards took a 12-3 lead into intermission.
Worcester called off the dogs somewhat in the second half and Calverton chipped away at the lead, but the Mallards hung on for the 17-9 win. The win was the seventh in a row for the Worcester girls, who improved to 8-1 on the season.