Mounties survive late Burrillville comeback

Mount’s Green, Burrillville’s Deschamps, Gautreau record hat tricks

BURRILLVILLE — When Mount St. Charles girls lacrosse coach Amanda Frederickson has all of her varsity players at her disposal, the young Mounties can be a pretty formidable foe.

Going into Monday’s Division III clash with Valley rival Burrillville, the Mounties only played two games – one with all of their varsity players and last week’s drubbing at the hands of undefeated Westerly where the Mounties were missing half of their starting lineup.

Monday, a number of starters were back from a school trip to Costa Rica, and they wasted no time opening up a comfortable advantage on the Broncos. Sophomore forward Delaney Green scored a pair of first-half goals to help the road side build a four-goal lead, but the Broncos battled back to tie the score early in the second half.

Even though Burrillville senior goalie Megan Buxton was the standout player of the game with 23 saves, the Mounties left Gledhill Field with a 10-9 Division III victory thanks to unanswered second-half goals from Green, senior Francesca Giacobbe and junior Maddie Cataldo.

“Their goalie is great and she keeps them in games and we seem to have a tough time putting the ball past her,” Frederickson said. “This is only our second game where we’ve had our whole team and the other [an April 5 victory over Toll Gate] was really early in the season. We’re still bringing it together and trying to get and figure out where everyone fits in. We’re still trying to get new people settled into our system. We’re a work in progress.”

Burrillville (2-3 Division III) nearly tied the game for the third time in the half when the Broncos scored twice late in the half and only trailed by a goal with 3:43 left in the contest. First, fleet-footed junior midfielder Jenna Deschamnps put a shot past goalie Kascey McKenna-Cournoyer (11 saves) and then junior midfielder Alana Robinson found the back of the net.

The Broncos had a couple of chances in the final minute, but a couple of days after downing North Providence in overtime, the hosts ran out of time.

“We’ve had a couple of fairly-competitive games and they’ve shown a lot of character coming back. We nearly tied it again,” Burrillville coach Pam Etheridge. “We basically have five girls on offense who can have multigoal games. We try to spread it around.”

Senior midfielder Caysie Gautreau scored the game’s opening goal just 90 seconds into the contest and finished with a hat trick, as did Deschamps. Alix Etheridge chipped in with a pair of goals and an assist.

While Pam Etheridge was proud of the way her team battled back from the late three-goal deficit, Frederickson wasn’t pleased with the way her team managed the final five minutes. Instead of playing under control and making high-percentage passes, the Mounties turned the ball over while trying to complete passes they didn’t need to attempt with a late lead.

“These girls need to learn to play with the lead and to keep the ball on their stick in those situations,” Frederickson said. “They need to focus on what they’re doing. They gave [Burrillville] opportunities that they shouldn’t have, so we need to focus on not doing that.”

Mount St. Charles (2-1 Division III) overcame Gautreau’s early tally by using the ath- leticism of Green, Katie Lynch, Cataldo and Lucy Baxter to get out in transition and take advantage of an inexperienced Burrillville back line. The Mounties scored four unanswered goals before the Broncos scored three goals.

The Mounties took a one-goal lead into halftime, but Robinson fed Gautreau for a goal 1:42 into the second half to tie the game. After Lynch and Etheridge exchanged goals, the Mounties went on a three-goal run to take a lead they would never relinquish.

“The big thing for us is to continue working on our defense because we graduated all those girls from last year,” Etheridge said. “We have Kenzie Raymond back there who played a little varsity last year, but none of those girls were full varsity. The girls talk well, it’s just about reading the play and knowing where the ball is.”

While the Broncos visit local rival Ponaganset Thursday, the Mounties are back on the field this afternoon at Cranston West.