Cougars roar past Franklin

Not many have solved Franklin’s defense this season.

But top-ranked Notre Dame (Hingham) cracked the code yesterday.

Madison Ahern notched four goals and seven other Cougars tallied as they downed the No. 2 Panthers, 14-4, in girls lacrosse action.

“You just need a lot of threats,” said ND coach Meredith Frank, as the Cougars scored more goals than Franklin had allowed in the past four games combined. “On any given day, I need a lot of people to step up and feel confident enough that they can execute.”

Franklin (8-1) rallied early in the second half on goals from Kendall Reardon and Erin Walsh to reduce their deficit to 6-3.

NDA (5-2) answered in a big way, though, closing the game on an 8-1 run.

Julia Green, Bridget Simmons and Ahern scored in a 41-second span to regain control, 9-3, with 14:17 remaining. The trio wasn’t done, adding one more goal each later in the half to seal the win.

Baseball

Max Barsamanian hit a walkoff grand slam to clinch a dramatic 7-5 victory for

Weston (3-2) over Dual County League foe Bedford.

In Bay State Conference play, Josh Richardson struck out four in a four-hit shutout as Brookline (5-2) blanked

Wellesley, 2-0. Dylan O’Leary went 2-for2 with two RBI and a stolen base as Hopkinton (2-2) topped Holliston, 6-2, in Tri-Valley League play.

Softball

Kelly Nelson struck out 19 to power Norton (5-1) to a 7-2 victory over Ashland in a Tri-Valley League game.

In the Northeastern Conference, Tori Adams struck out 10 as Lynn Classical (50) edged Peabody, 2-1.