Chargers edge Pats in D-III semis

Matt Metcalf
Posted 5/28/15

The Pilgrim girls’ lacrosse team had a bit of déjà vu on Tuesday night.

Last season, the Pats fell in the Division III championship to Chariho, 9-8.

So when Pilgrim defeated Westerly in …

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Chargers edge Pats in D-III semis

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The Pilgrim girls’ lacrosse team had a bit of déjà vu on Tuesday night.

Last season, the Pats fell in the Division III championship to Chariho, 9-8.

So when Pilgrim defeated Westerly in the quarterfinals last Thursday night, it knew that it would get another crack at the Chargers – this time in the semifinals.

Early on, it looked as if the Pats would get some payback, jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the second half.

But after that, Chariho carried the play, outscoring Pilgrim 8-2 for the remainder of the game.

Pilgrim’s Hannah Johnson had a prime opportunity to tie the game in the final seconds, but a bad bounce didn’t allow her to get a shot off, as Chariho was able to hang on for a 9-8 win – the same score as last year’s title game.

“It was the same score as last year’s final, so it’s a little haunting,” Pilgrim head coach Tom Flanders said. “But it was a highly competitive game. They’re a very good team and this was the game to watch.”

The first 12 minutes of the game suggested that Pilgrim may run away with a blowout win.

Johnson broke the ice less than five minutes in when she buried a shot after an assist from Emma Reilly to give the Pats a 1-0 lead.

Chariho’s Samantha Orciari answered back shortly after to tie the game at 1, but the Pats responded with an even stronger surge.

This time, Pilgrim strung together four straight tallies.

Senior captain Emily Fluette quickly regained the lead for her team, ripping a shot past Chariho netminder Madison Newman to make it 2-1.

That was followed by three goals in just over two minutes for Pilgrim, as Kendra Tantimonico got in on the action with her lone goal in the game, while Fluette and Johnson each found the back of the cage for their second goals of the half.

At that point, the Pats had a comfortable 5-1 lead, triggering Chariho head coach Michelle Tebbetts to call a timeout.

And it worked.

Over the final 11 minutes of the first half, Chariho went on a 4-0 run of its own to tie the game at 5 going into halftime.

Over that stretch, Orciari scored her second and third goals of the game, and Payton St. Lawrence and Mason Jones also beat Pilgrim goalkeeper Alex Pouliot.

With Chariho carrying all of the momentum entering the second half, Pilgrim came out seeking to change that.

And it did – albeit for a short time.

The second half started much like the first – with a goal from Johnson.

The junior completed her hat trick with a goal 1:49 into the half to give the Pats a 6-5 lead.

However, offensive success was rare for Pilgrim over the final 35 minutes of the game, with Chariho getting back on defense and providing layers to slow down Pilgrim in transition.

Once the Chargers began to get back with numbers on defense, the game completely changed, influencing the outcome.

“They started to put an anchor on us and we had to come back from that,” Flanders said of Chariho’s defense after the first 12 minutes of the game. “We started to, and I thought we were going to come back late, but if a bounce or a call goes our way, it’s a completely different story.”

Chariho refused to go away after Pilgrim took that 6-5 lead in the opening minutes of the second frame, as sophomore Alexa Bobbin beat Pouliot to tie the game at 6.

Bobbin then gave Chariho its first lead with 18:22 remaining in the game, when she found a seam in the defense and ripped a shot into the back of the net.

Off of the ensuing faceoff, the Chargers regained possession and Savannah Dube got behind the Pilgrim defense, going in all alone and scoring to make it 8-6.

However, Pilgrim wasn’t ready to go away quietly, with Hannah Page bouncing a shot into the top left corner of the net with 16:07 left to cut Pilgrim’s deficit to one.

Chariho’s Alyssa Bromley scored with 11:26 to go, before Fluette completed a hat trick of her own with 2:59 left, making it a 9-8 game to set up a dramatic finish.

In the final minutes, Chariho played keep away, moving the ball around to drain the clock.

Pilgrim didn’t regain possession until the clock showed just 16 seconds remaining, with Paula Cavanagh retrieving a ground ball.

She raced into open space and moved the ball up to Johnson, who was fouled with three seconds left, giving her a free shot.

It seemed as if the game was setting up for overtime, but when Johnson went to shoot, the ball rolled off her stick, sending the ball off to the right to clinch the victory for Chariho.

The Chargers will go on to play top-seeded Classical at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Brown University for the D-III title.

There was no question that it was a heartbreaker for the Pats.

“It’s emotional because these kids are dynamite kids,” Flanders said. “They just played extremely well. I’m just speechless, and I’m usually not. But the program will be fine – we’ll be back next year.”

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