Skippers halt Rebels’ late charge
Answer challenge with strong 2nd half
Kully Reardon’s Cohasset girls lacrosse team had a five-goal lead at halftime of the Division 2 state championship game against Walpole yesterday, but she was concerned. This wasn’t the Rebels first time in the state finals, and their experience against Norwell last year could power a potential comeback.
“What I was really afraid of was a lull,” said Reardon. “Walpole, this is what happened with them last year against Norwell. They were down by a similar spread at the half and they came all the way back to basically tie it.”
So Cohasset (21-2) kept its foot on the gas, adding seven second half goals to earn the state championship with a 14-6 win over the Rebels (22-3) at Boston University’s Nickerson Field. Jane Hansen had five of those tallies, despite being carefully defended by the Rebels defense.
Melanie Weber got Walpole on the scoreboard first just over two minutes in. But Hansen started her run, evening the score seven minutes later. Julia Placek and Elle Hansen put the Skippers up by two before Allison Foley notched her first of two scores for the Rebels. But Cohasset answered with a four-goal run to end the first half.
Reardon’s prediction was correct, as Walpole came out of halftime ready to rally. Foley struck first, but the Skippers countered five times. Weber finally ended Cohasset’s run with a goal with 10:14 left, but the Skippers’ transition was much too strong to contain, allowing Jane Hansen to score her fifth of the game with eight minutes left.
“Cohasset is a team without weakness, as far as I’m concerned,” said Walpole coach Mike Tosone. “The two things that were just incredible about them was their transition ‘O’ and their settled ‘D’. Both of those are A-plus, and even on our best day that would have been very difficult to control. Their transition was scary good.”
In the waning minutes, Walpole tried to make a run. Emily Curtis tallied back-to-back goals, and goalie Morgan Fontana pounced on shots in the midst of an 11-save effort. But it wasn’t enough, and with one last Placek tally with a minute left, the Skippers finally earned a long-awaited championship.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” said Cohasset junior Olivia Coveney. “We’ve been waiting for this for so long. Every year, we said, ‘This year’s our year,’ and this year we went through with it. It’s the best feeling ever.”