Loparto sisters lead Lincoln
Duo combines for nine goals in Lions home victory
LINCOLN — After reaching the Division II semifinals last season, the Lincoln girls lacrosse team came into 2017 as one of the favorites to reach Rhode Island College, even though Maya LaFleur has taken her prodigious scoring talents to St. Thomas Aquinas in New York.
But, as Lincoln coach Susan Renzi joked, the Lions aren’t fast starters, but rather strong finishers.
Lincoln, after beating Johnston in its season opener, dropped three straight contests heading into Friday morning’s clash with reigning Division III runner-up Chariho.
The Lions scored the game’s first five goals before Chariho battled back to close the gap to two right after halftime.
The Chargers, however, didn’t have an answer for the attacking troika of sisters Leila and Lily Loparto and sophomore Sadie LaFleur. The younger Loparto, sophomore Lily, scored a match-high five goals, while LaFleur and senior Leila Loparto each added four goals in a 15-10 victory.
“The girls are working better today and they’re anticipating the play much better,” Renzi said. “We’ve been working on stuff like that – transition and attacking. My girls get better as the season goes on. The beginning of the season was rainy, so we didn’t get outside for the first three weeks. They have to be on a field because being in a gym does nothing.”
“At practice, on Thursday, we really worked on passing a lot,” Leila Loparto said. “We swung so many passes together and we just talked about what we need to do as a team to win games. We need to work together at this and not just everyone on their own trying to score. We used the plays we’ve been working on and they worked really well in this game.”
Lincoln (2-3 Division II) will look to move its record in morning games at Ferguson Field to 2-0 when Classical makes the short ride up Route 146 for a 10 a.m. contest Monday. Friday, goalie Jannamarie O’Neil received plenty of praise from Renzi after recording five saves.
Chariho (1-1 Division II) played in the last three Division III finals, but the Chargers struggled to deal with the speed and skill of Lincoln’s attackers. The Chargers received four goals from Haley Dyer and two apiece from Mollie Dyer and Maura Beaudreau. Goalie Sam Quinn recorded nine saves.
The Chargers simply had no answer for the Lopartos and LaFleur in the opening six minutes. Lily Loparto gave the Lions a lead they would never relinquish just 1:45 into the opening half when she fired a shot past Quinn.
And then Leila Loparto took over for the next three minutes. The senior scored a hat trick in the opening 5:15 and she scored two goals in the span of 15 seconds to turn a 1-0 advantage into a 3-0 lead.
“To defend, you just have to stay on a person and put a lot of pressure on them,” Leila Loparto said of trying to slow down athletic girls like herself. “That’s why I’m an A-wing, so I have to put pressure on them and run back on defense.”
The Lions led by as many as six goals in the opening half after LaFleur’s second tally of the morning, but then the Chargers began winning face-offs and controlling the tempo of the match. Haley Dyer, Mollie Dyer and Lea Iacobbio scored to close out the half to cut the deficit to just two.
“Halftime, we talked about how we needed to win this game,” Leila Loparto said. “We got off to a good start, but they were getting close. We just kept talking about what we need- ed to do and how we needed to string some passes together and make some plays. Our plays worked and it was awesome.”
Haley Dyer made it a two-goal game just 40 seconds into the second half, but LaFleur and Lily Loparto scored goals a minute apart to increase the lead to four. Haley Dyer closed the gap to three with back-toback goals, but the Lions answered with four unanswered goals to put the game away.