The headline is a 18-13 win on the road against Berkshire, taking us to 11-2 on the season. But the story of the game is an interesting one.
Berkshire came out gunning for us and were lifted by the excitement of their Senior Day. But the Big Green came to play as well, and the warm sunshine lifted everyone’s spirits. DA won the first two draws, with Mimi Pastor controlling the ball on the circle and starting off a huge day for her overall. We were able to capitalize on these possessions with two quick goals and it felt like we were off to the races. But Berkshire played tough and responded well, penetrating our defense and earning two free positions. The Bears were able to convert on these, tying the game at 2-2.
Then we witnessed some unsettled lacrosse for the rest of the half as DA struggled with turnovers and missed opportunities. The DA offense was moving well and shooting on cage, but several possessions were cut short by unforced errors in our attacking zone as well as midfield. Defensively we were also not as sharp as usual, and Berkshire was able to keep pace with our offense. As a result we weren’t able to pull away as we had hoped, and the score was tied at 7-7. But later on in the half our defense stiffened up, keeping Berkshire in check while our offense settled down and produced more goals – taking us to a halftime lead of 13-9. Giving up 9 goals in a half is unusual for this team, but the trend was good heading into the break.
The start of the second half continued to be closely matched, and we had a hard time adding to our lead. But our defense was playing stronger, led by Margaret Williams, and Maggie Tydings came up with some important momentum-shifting saves. Mimi Pastor continued to dominate on the circle, and Bailey Cheetham and Christina Halloran were grinding out possessions as well. This ball control helped us pull further ahead – Sarah Stonestreet had some great transition goals, Bailey made some terrific drives and feeds for tallies, and Mary Edmonds took advantage of several one-on-one challenges. We also won the turnover game in the second half with some well-timed checks. This aggressive play, however, also led to enough penalties to cost us a player for the remainder of the game. And with Mae Emerson going down with an injury, our defense had their hands full. But Lilly Berry, Meredith Heaney and Talbot von Stade rose to the challenge, as well as Maggie in the net, and we held the Bears to only two goals while being a player down over the final fourteen minutes of the game. Finally, with a five goal lead, our offense had a well-executed possession over the last few minutes to run out the clock.
Mimi Pastor was awarded the Play Tough Player of the Game for her overall hustle and remarkable performance on the circle with 11 draw controls.
This was not our finest day on the lacrosse field, and the game was an unusual and disjointed one. But we pulled out another win and now have total focus on finishing strong on Saturday against Exeter.