BRUNSWICK – Caroline Wild had six assists and Annie Kelly scored three straight second-half goals as top-seeded Brunswick held off No. 6 Cheverus 13-8 to win the Eastern Class A girls’ lacrosse championship Thursday.

The Dragons (14-1) scored five straight goals in the first half to break a 3-3 tie and appeared to be in control with an 8-3 lead, but Cheverus charged out of the halftime break and got four of the next five goals.

When Meredith Willard finished a solo fast break for Cheverus (9-6), the lead was down to 9-7 with 12:23 left.

That’s when the Wild-Kelly tandem started to take over, with Wild finding Kelly in front from the back right side for a goal 33 seconds later.

“When it got close, we realized we’d scored eight goals in the first half, so we figured we could keep it up in the second,” Kelly said of her team’s reaction to the Stags’ comeback.

Willard fed Catie Walsh to cut the deficit to two again, and the Dragons called a timeout.

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“We’d been in this position before,” said Cheverus Coach Jamie Chamberlain, whose team also lost to Brunswick in last year’s regional final. “We were getting some chances, and I knew if we took care of the ball and made some plays we could get back in it.

“We were too tentative early, and I told them to be more aggressive and attack their defense. But ground balls really hurt us. We wanted to take it one step further than last year, so the girls are disappointed.”

Wild set up Kelly again for goal that gave the Dragons some breathing room with 6:18 left.

The two combined for a third time just 20 seconds later, Wild feeding Kelly in the middle for a 12-8 lead.

“All year Caroline has been consistently great at finding the seams,” said Kelly. “She’d find me between two defenders and put it right there.”

“Annie told me she’d be alone in the middle,” added Wild, “so I just had to look for her.”

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Kelly set up Corinne O’Connor alone in front for the final goal.

Brunswick will face Scarborough at 3 p.m. Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium in a rematch of last year’s state final, won by Scarborough.

Smith scored two early goals for Brunswick and Alex Logan netted a pair for Cheverus.

Then, with the scored tied at 3, the Dragons began to click on offense, sparked by Lillian Kjellman.

O’Connor fed Kjellman off a free possession to put Brunswick ahead for good, and Dakota Foster came up with a nice catch and shot after a Kjellman pass to make it 5-3.

A Smith-to-Kjellman connection pushed the margin to three and led to a Cheverus timeout, but Wild fed O’Connor at the left post and Kjellman found Foster off the draw for an 8-3 lead.

“We knew Cheverus was a strong team,” said Dragons Coach Beth Caputi, who plans to step down after Saturday’s championship game. “They have a very nice zone defense and they did a good job face-guarding Dakota; but as always, Dakota did so many other things to help us, and (goalie Molly Herman) had some key interceptions.”

 


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