At halftime of their Senior Day game against visiting York, the graduating players on the Waynflete girls’ lacrosse team dug deep to find some added motivation for the second half.

It paid off for the Flyers, who came together on the offensive end after the break to beat the Wildcats 5-3 on Thursday.

“Us seniors, we were kind of like, ‘This can’t be our last home game,’ ” said Nina Moore. “We want home-field advantage in the playoffs. We just kind of built off each other’s energy.”

Fellow seniors Anne Veroneau, Charlotte Majercik, Christian Rowe and Meredith Smith helped spark the comeback win, and were honored for their contributions to the program before the game.

“This has been a transition year for us because we have a lot of young players,” said Waynflete Coach Cathie Connors. “The seniors are just wonderful role models and wonderful leaders. They just play and set the tone.”

Moore scored a pair of goals in the second half for the Flyers (8-3) to help catapult her team to a win that can only solidify their postseason standing.

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“She’s a senior. She’s fully in control,” said Connors. “She loves the games and loves to play hard. When the stakes get higher, she gets better.”

Moore was able to cash in twice because of Waynflete’s improved offense after the break, which was kick-started right from the opening play of the second half when Veroneau, who also had two assists, won the faceoff.

“Getting the first draw of the half was really important for us,” Moore said. “Just getting the possession and we went from there. We needed something to trigger us, to strike that match. That first possession kind of set us on fire.”

Sophomore Laura Baginski took a pass from Veroneau just under four minutes into the second half and buried a game-tying score.

Just over a minute later, Moore put Waynflete on top for the first time, and it held a lead the rest of the way.

The Flyers tacked on a fourth goal on an Izzy Burdick finish 59 seconds after Moore’s first goal. Moore rounded out the scoring with 11:36 with Veroneau getting her second assist of the day.

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On the other end of the field, a solid defensive effort was anchored by Majercik – who made an impressive 12 saves at goalkeeper in the win.

“She did a great job,” said York Coach Jodie Lawlor. “She really did a nice job in goal. We had our opportunities. We just couldn’t convert today. This league has a lot of good goalies and if you don’t move them, they don’t have to do much, but she saved a ton of low shots. We thought it was a very bouncy field around the goal but just did a great job today. We certainly tested her.”

Added Moore: “Char is phenomenal. Every game she gets better. We’re doing a really good job communicating. What really helped today was that communication and trusting each other, because we couldn’t have done it if we didn’t know another person was going to pick up a cutting player or something like that.”

The Wildcats (7-3) got two goals from Allie Lawlor and one from Emma Ford. Martha McCaddin chipped in a pair of assists while Mackenzie Mallett added one.


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