The Johnston girls’ lacrosse team could not hold on to a 5-3 halftime lead as the Vikings from Rogers High School outlasted the Panthers for a 9-7 win at Johnston High School on senior night this past Tuesday.

This was a big game for both teams in regards to their seeding for the postseason with the winner most likely securing a home playoff game. The loss drops the Panthers to fifth place in Division III with an 8-4 record while Rogers improves to 9-4, good for fourth place as the playoffs rapidly approach next week.

Bianca Robbins got the Panthers on the scoreboard just 35 seconds into the game as she made a nice defensive play and proceeded to run the length of the field for the game's first goal. The Vikings’ Cecelia Lord would tie the game up with the first of her three goals. Johnston's leading goal scorer and one of the division's leading scorers, Grace Sarah, with an assist from Maia Antonucci, broke the tie. Gaby Sauro gave Johnston a two-goal lead, but Rogers kept pace with a goal by captain Jane Leys. Jocelyn Cabral netted her 17th goal of the season, assisted by Sauro, as the Panthers regained their two-goal lead at 4-2 with just under two minutes to play in the first half. Leys cut the JHS lead to 4-3, but Sarah would tally her 37th goal of the season with just 44 seconds remaining in the half, giving the Panthers a 5-3 halftime advantage.

During halftime, the Panthers’ senior players were honored on the field as their family members joined them in celebrating their hard work and dedication to the sport. The Johnston seniors are Loammi Grullon, captain Jocelyn Cabral, captain Maia Antonucci, captain Rachel Graziano, Sarah Tedeschi, Alejandra Faella and captain Jenna Pizzi.

“It will be sad to see the seniors leave, some of them were three-year starters,” said Johnston head coach Jay Areson. “They were instrumental in bringing this program together and they are leaving a legacy for other girls to see. This is just not a football, softball or baseball town anymore; it is now a lacrosse town. I will definitely miss them.”

The Vikings struck first in the second half with a Sierra Walton goal. Antonucci put JHS ahead 6-4, but Rogers would score four unanswered goals in an eight-minute span with Olivia Nunes, Emma Daigneault and two goals by the speedy Lord doing the damage. Gabriella DiRaimo ended the Rogers run to close the gap to 8-7, but the Viking defense proved to be too much for the Panthers in the final 10 minutes. Faye Callahan added an insurance goal as the Vikings shut down the Panthers the rest of the way.

“I believe the difference in the game was that we lost our composure,” Areson said. “We did not control the sticks when we should have and a couple of fouls at the end hurt us. On offense, I thought we could have done a little better at passing the ball around, instead of going one on one. This loss hurts, it probably will give us an away playoff game.”

“We are a run-and-gun team and we stayed on that pace the entire game, which I think wore Johnston down,” said Rogers head coach Ben Upham. “They did not have answers for us and when a team loses its composure, you have to jump on it. That's what I told my girls at halftime, and it turned the momentum around.”

Upham praised his team’s defense saying, “I thought our defense was the best part of our game tonight. We are used to playing high-scoring games and a 9-7 win is huge for us. To give up only seven goals is big for this team. We locked down Johnston’s leading scorers and they did a good job on Jane Leys, who has close to 50 points this season. This win is a big swing momentum-wise going into the playoffs.”

The Panthers will finish up the regular season with two home games starting today against Scituate at 3:30. They will conclude their season against North Providence next Tuesday in what is a make-up game. The Panthers will wait and see who their first round opponent will be. Scituate and North Providence are non-playoff teams.

“We were all a little frustrated with Rogers’ speed tonight, but we have to regroup and reassess a few things,” Areson said. “We made mental mistakes tonight like that offside towards the end of the game.”