Huntingtown girls lacrosse outlasts Northern

Players from both the Huntingtown High School and Northern High girls lacrosse teams often have to avoid looking past their early opponents to their annual showdown typically on the latter portion of the schedule. But last Friday, March 15, the squads met in their respective season openers and host Hurricanes withstood a late furious Patriots’ rally for a 10-8 victory on a chilly, breezing evening.

Huntingtown (1-0) owned a modest 6-3 advantage at the intermission and extended the margin to 10-4 heading into the fourth quarter after dominating the third period. But the Patriots certainly made things interesting in the final frame as junior Nina Williams scored three times and Alana Gibson added another goal to trim the final margin to 10-8 when the horn sounded.

Huntingtown’s Olivia Rapport notched four goals on Friday and senior teammate Lyndsy Palensky added a pair as four other Hurricanes scored one goal apiece to lift the hosts to a 10-4 lead through three quarters. But after dominating the third quarter, Huntingtown found itself in a genuine dogfight in the fourth, fitting of the longtime rivalry between the two squads.

“It definitely got a lot more intense in the fourth quarter,” said Palensky, who has already signed her National Letter of Intent to attend Mount Olive. “Northern has a lot of really good players. It was definitely different playing them in the first game of the season. Usually we see them at the end of the season right before playoffs.”

Huntingtown senior Leah Gullace, who signed her NLI last fall to attend Embry-Riddle University, spent most of the game in the midfield then later transitioned to defense as the Patriots gradually narrowed the gap during an increasingly more physical fourth quarter.

“That fourth quarter was really intense,” Gullace said. “We played really well in the third quarter then Northern came out with a little more energy in the fourth quarter. They have some really good players and it got a little too close at the end.”

After being limited to a grand sum of four goals through the first three quarters, Northern matched that production in the fourth. The Patriots owned the advantage in the draw circle and that translated into late goals from Gibson and Williams, who had a hat trick in the frame and finished with four goals on the evening.

“It’s always a good game with them,” Williams said. “We just dug ourselves in a hole that third quarter. But we played with a lot of energy in the fourth quarter. We had good possessions and we won the draws and we made it really close at the end.”