This past Friday, the girls’ lacrosse team beat the Menlo Knights by a convincing score of 15-10. The Bears won the initial face-off and shortly after, senior Amelia Poirier scored the first of many goals. On the next possession junior Shea Dekshenieks followed up with a goal of her own, raising the score to 2-0.
Menlo won the following face-off and made their first shot on goal, but senior goalkeeper Ishy Mishra stopped it with ease and won possession back for the Bears. M-A continued to attack and senior Megan Cobos secured a 3-0 lead early in the first half. Dekshenieks followed up with her second goal of the night, making it 4-0. On the next possession the Bears scored a great team goal with lots of quick passes confusing the Knights’ defenders, raising the game to 5-0 in favor of the Bears. Dekshenieks completed a hat trick to make it 6-0 with a fast shot right past the Knights’ goalkeeper.
The Knights finally had a shot that found the back of the net 17 minutes into the first half and quickly cut the deficit to four goals with a penalty.
The Bears were still in a comfortable lead, so much so that after Dekshenieks scored her fourth goal to raise the score to 7-2, the Bears’ coach subbed Dekshenieksƒ out and she was able to catch her breath with a Starbucks acai refresher.
Another penalty call in Menlo’s favor was heavily contested by the M-A coaching staff and spectators, however, the Knights converted it and made the score 7-3. The Knights’ third goal gave them confidence and they scored a fourth just before the half.
The second half started with the Bears dominating offensively with a set of goals from Dekshenieks and Poirier. The Knights responded with a goal of their own, but M-A quickly followed up their mistake with another goal from Dekshenieks, her sixth goal of the game to raise the score to 10-5.
The Knights made one last push to cut the lead, scoring three goals in the span of just five minutes and reducing the Bears’ lead down to a mere 2 points. Despite Menlo’s surge, M-A stayed calm and repossessed the ball.
The Bears’ perseverance paid off as Poirier scored another goal, and junior Charlotte Fisher netted two goals of her own to extend the Bears’ lead back to 5 goals with seven minutes left.
M-A closed the game out with a final score of 15-10 in favor of M-A, making it the second win in the past three games for the team.
Dekshenieks said, “I think the team worked really hard today. Everyone gave their all and that is why we won this game.” When asked about her six goals, Dekshenieks noted, “I couldn’t score that many goals if my teammates weren’t setting me up, so the credit should really go to all of them as well.”
Poirier said, “We started off super strong and just kept the momentum rolling the whole game. Our aggression and determination to win is what ultimately led to our success.”
The Bears will retake the field on Wednesday night to play the Archbishop Mitty Monarchs.
Thanks for covering some sports stories. One suggestion…you don’t need to use an apostrophe when naming a team with a gender. It should just be, “Girls Lacrosse” for example. The sport doesn’t belong to them, it’s just an attributive noun.