BRUNSWICK

Over the first 11 minutes of Saturday’s girls high school lacrosse game, Brunswick had everything working.

Solid defense, success in draw controls, great goaltending and a 6-1 lead that had South Portland on its heels, trying to hang with the Dragons.

Then, everything for the hosts went awry, with the Red Riots rallying with three late goals to tie the game before controlling the two overtime periods for an 8-7 come-from-behind win.

“My girls are really sad right now, but they played hard to the end and put it all out there,” said Brunswick coach Steph Fisher, whose squad is 4-4 and visits Mt. Ararat on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. “We need to put this game behind us and learn from some of the mistakes that we made. Today was definitely the hardest loss that we have had this season.”

“I don’t know what it is. Last game we were down 11- 7 and came back and won 13- 12,” said South Portland coach Bill Fenton of his team’s victory over Cony on Wednesday. “The defense came alive, and I took Bri Maloney, who plays defense, and moved her up to attack. She ended up popping in two goals. We were right on them when they got the ball, and that made a difference.”

Brunswick leads 6-1

South Portland opened the scoring on a Courtney Trufant goal 54 seconds into the game.

The Dragons responded quickly, with Sydney Anderson scoring off her own rebound, and Grace Rabinowitz setting up Angelica Boyle for a 2-1 Brunswick lead.

Goals by Rabinowitz, Anderson, Rabinowitz again and Anna McMillan made for a 6-1 game with 13:24 left until halftime.

But, that was all the Dragons mustered on the offensive end for the next 33:41 of playing time.

Fisher thought a move by Fenton made the difference.

“They switched number 16 (Mary Cronin) to handle draws, and we just never had possession of the ball,” said Fisher.

Despite possessing the ball for nearly the rest of the half, the Red Riots only solved Brunswick goaltender EmaLeigh Aschbrenner once more, with Trufant scoring her second goal off an assist from Maddie Hasson.

The Dragons led 6-2 at the half.

“Our settled attack was doing great and our defense was holding them out,” said Fisher of her team’s first half. “Sasha Hampton (three groundballs, four forced turnovers) on defense was playing solid, and she gets those checks off that are amazing. Their team wasn’t helping, as they were standing around. But, in the second half they picked it up. We held out for a while, but only so much can happen.”

Trufant completed her hat trick to bring the Red Riots to 6-3, and Cronin slipped a bounce shot past Aschbrenner with 12:55 remaining in regulation to make for a twogoal game.

“We started off really strong with a lot of energy,” said Brunswick senior captain Caley Nicholson, who had two assists and played solid in the defensive end. “They started moving around more on attack, and had more cutters. There was a time where we took a little bit of a break in our intensity, and they took advantage of it.”

Despite going nearly 34 minutes without a goal, the Dragons claimed a 7-4 lead with 4:43 remaining when McMillan scored her second goal off an assist from Savannah Smith.

South Portland began its run with 2:30 left as Maloney picked up a groundball after Cronin’s shot rang off the post and scored.

Cronin, who won nine of 11 draw controls, set up teammate Shae O’Brien to close the Red Riots to 7-6 with 46 seconds remaining. Off the ensuing draw control, Cronin gathered the ball, darted between two Brunswick defenders and scored the tying goal with 36 ticks left.

In the first three-minute overtime, Maloney scored the game-winner from Hasson, who had a game-high four assists and 12 groundballs.

Aschbrenner kept the Dragons alive with two saves on Cronin, but South Portland maintained possession to close out the 8-7 win.

Rabinowitz had two goals, one assist and five groundballs to lead the Dragons, with Anderson and McMillan picking up two goals each. Nicholson had five groundballs, with Smith earning three groundballs and two forced turnovers.

Aschbrenner turned aside 13 shots in the loss.

So.Portland 8,
Brunswick 7, OT

At Brunswick
SouthPortland—2510—8
Brunswick—6100—7
Goals — (SP) Courtney Trufant
3, Mary Cronin 2, Brianne Maloney 2, Shae O’Brien; (B) Sydney
Anderson 2, Angelica Boyle,
Grace Rabinowitz 2, Anna McMillan 2.
Assists — (SP) Maddie Hasson
4, Mary Cronin, Colleen Fleming;
(B) Grace Rabinowitz, Caley
Nicholson 2, Savannah Smith.
Shots — South Portland 26,
Brunswick 18.
Saves — (SP) Zoe Brown 11;
(B) EmaLeigh Aschbrenner 13.
Draw controls — South Portland
11, Brunswick 9.
Records — South Portland 5-4,
Brunswick 4-4.
Up next for Brunswick —
Wednesday at Mt. Ararat, 3:30
p.m.