HS girls lacrosse: NFA happy with win over St. Bernard

NFA coach Eric Page had his team practice a little game of keep away.
“We practiced that for the last few days, up by one, down by one, what are we going to do,” Page said.
He had expected the Wildcats game with St. Bernard, after all, to be a “nailbiiter”.
Fortunately for Page, he didn’t have to chew his nails as his Wildcats posted a 15-12 win at Norwich Free Academy on Thursday.
His Wildcats (4-2) built a six-goal lead late in the game and then practiced what he had preached, kept the ball away from the Saints.
The Wildcats got a little helping hand from the Saints (4-1) who weren’t as aggressive as coach Tonya Acosta wanted.
For example, with a minute and a half left in the first half, the Saints had the ball behind the Wildcats net. They worked the ball front and back, but Chelsea Phillips could only get a desperation attempt as time ran out. It allowed the Wildcats to go into the half with a 7-5 lead, a lead they would build on in the second half.
“That was huge,” NFA senior Lucy Fernandez said of the early lead. “The most important part of the game is winning the draws so once we got the momentum and the lead and realized that we could win and that’s what kept us motivated.”
Fernandez added that once the Wildcats built the lead to five goals, that the Saints “got a little flustered”. To their credit, St. Bernard recovered and made it a three-goal difference with five minutes, 12 seconds left in the game.
The Saints momentum, however, disappeared when thunder and lightning suspended the game for 90 minutes,
NFA put the game away just two minutes after play resumed when Abbie McNomee put one past Saints keeper Erin Amarello.
“That was the real play of the game,” Page said. “Coming out after the rain, winning the draw and scoring the goal. It was a big confidence boost for us.”