BC women slay Trojans
Eagles off to Div. 1 final four
The Boston College women’s lacrosse team can put away the GPS. The route to Gillette Stadium is well marked.
The Eagles punched their ticket to Foxboro and a berth in the NCAA Division 1 final four yesterday with a solidly played 20-14 victory over USC in front of 1,008 at Newton Campus Fields.
BC (16-6), which established a single-season program mark in wins, advances to play Navy (18-4) on Friday (7:30 p.m.). The teams met on March 4 in Annapolis, Md., where the Eagles took a 20-11 win.
The Eagles, who have now scored 20 goals or more in all three of its NCAA tourney wins this spring, were led by a nine-point performance from senior attack Kate Weeks (three goals, six assists). Junior midfielder Kenzie Kent of Norwell posted eight points, with a game-high six goals. The potent BC offense pumped 38 shots at USC junior and U.S. international netminder Gussie Johns (eight saves).
BC’s top scorer, sophomore Sam Apuzzo, chipped in with two goals and two assists. Junior Kaileen Hart and senior Kayla O’Connor of Merrimac added hat tricks. At the other end, senior starter Zoe Ochoa of Longmeadow (two saves) and sophomore Lauren Daly (six saves), who played the second half, shut the door on the Women of Troy.
“They’re both a huge asset to our defense and both are very different,” said BC coach Acacia Walker, who has split time between the 5-foot-8 Ochoa and the 5-foot-3 Daly in every game this season except Senior Day. “It’s sort of a strategy play against the other shooters. Zoe plays one way and then Lauren comes in and offers something completely different.”
BC opened a 10-5 lead in the first half, with the unsung Eagles defense, led by converted midfielder Dempsey Arsenault (two ground balls, two draw controls, three caused turnovers) disrupting the USC attack.
“You need to play a full 60 minutes to get a win and we didn’t do that today. We needed to be more disciplined,” said USC coach Lindsey Munday, who was coached by Walker when Munday played at Northwestern.
USC (18-4) regrouped at intermission and scored twice in the first 30 seconds of the second half on shots by Kaeli Huff and Cynthia Del Core to grab momentum. USC began to go toeto-toe with the Eagles and cut the deficit to 14-10 on a goal by Kerrigan Miller with more than 20 minutes left.
But BC received a key goal from senior midfielder Mary Kate O’Neill to regain a fivegoal comfort zone. Daly then provided a clutch pointblank save on USC’s dangerous senior attack Drew Jackson (team-best three goals).
The stop proved timely as it was sandwiched by a pair of USC goals by senior attack Gabby McMahon that brought the margin to 15-12. Had Jackson converted, all the momentum would have swung to the visitors. BC’s Walker knew that and used a timeout at 14:50 to settle her team.
USC never got within three goals the rest of the way. And all that’s left now is for the Eagles to motor on down Route 1.
“Our main focus was not to have a lull in the game. That’s what USC was trying to do,” said Kenzie Kent, who now has 29 goals in 10 games after finishing up her winter ice hockey season.