WILDCATS STUN POWHATAN, 13-12

RC

Girls Lax Rallies For Win In OT Thriller

‘Once I started going, I was really nervous.

Once I saw it go in the goal, it was so relieving.’ - Lola Mulitalo

The only lead that the Rockbridge County High School girls lacrosse team took in Friday’s Class 4 state quarterfinal matchup with Powhatan was the one that mattered most.

Lola Mulitalo’s overtime goal lifted the Wildcats to a 13-12 victory, capping off a postseason thriller in Lexington and winning their 15th consecutive game.

Mulitalo, who had tied the game at 12-12 with just 11 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, scored on a free-position shot with 2:32 left in the second half of overtime as RC (16-1) rallied past the Indians (14-3).

The Region 4D champion Wildcats were slated to play host to Region 4A winners Hanover in the semifinal round of the Class 4 tournament last night (Tuesday). This marks the ’Cats’ fourth consecutive appearance in the state semifinals.

After both teams missed out on chances in the first three-minute overtime period – including a remarkable check from Powhatan defender Katelyn Williams on a promising transition opportunity for Mulitalo – RC’s Braelyn Polly secured the opening draw in the second frame.

The Wildcats quickly got the ball into the stick of Mulitalo, who drew a foul inside the 8-meter arc and stepped up for the gamewinner.

“I was really calm at the beginning, for some reason,” the sophomore attacker said of the decisive free-position score. “Once I started going, I was really nervous. Once I saw it go in the goal, it was so relieving.”

Mulitalo finished with five goals and one assist, scoring four of those goals across the fourth period and overtime as RC battled back to tie things up in the waning moments of regulation.

Erica Krauss posted seven goals for Powhatan, which fell to the Wildcats in the state quarterfinals for the third straight season. But Krauss, who also tallied four draw controls and a pair of caused turnovers, left the game with an apparent leg injury with 1:40 to go in regulation.

The game was level at 11-11 at that point. The play that led to Krauss’s exit resulted in an 8-meter chance, which Grace Hayden converted to put the Indians ahead 12-11 with 1:36 on the clock.

RC won the ensuing draw, but Powhatan goalie Mackenzie Halfon denied a chance for Anna Nye with just under a minute remaining. The Indians cleared the ball, only to see Wildcat defender Nadia Gaydos produce a massive caused turnover with 24 seconds to play. RC rushed the ball up the field, and Nala Shearer fed Mulitalo for the equalizer with 11 seconds left.

“First, I was so excited for Nadia. Libba Erskine, she picked it up and passed it to Nala. It was a risky pass, but we had to get it in the goal,” Mulitalo said in describing the gametying sequence. “She [Shearer] passed it, and I scored. That’s just how we needed it to go.”

The Wildcats had fought back from multiple deficits throughout the game. Powhatan jumped out to an early 5-1 lead, with Krauss sinking the Indians’ first four goals and Caroline Camp adding a free-position tally with 4:25 remaining in the first quarter.

Krauss was unstoppable early, driving and dodging through the ’Cats’ defense – which had given up 11 combined goals in three Region 4D tournament games – with relative ease. RC head coach Susan Nye called the Powhatan junior “a phenomenal player.”

“She’s great on the draw,” Coach Nye added about Krauss. “She is fabulous on the dodge.”

Anna Nye scored from a Mulitalo assist with 2:04 to play in the first period to make it 5-2, and Mulitalo and Shearer both tallied player-up goals in the opening minute of the second stanza to bring RC to within 5-4. Camp notched another 8-meter score with 9:41 to play, but a marker from Erskine and another Wildcat player-up goal – this time from Halina Homiak – knotted things up at 6-6 with 1:21 remaining in the second period.

The Indians answered through Chloe Holt’s shorthanded goal with only 3.2 seconds to play, taking a 7-6 advantage into the break.

Ruby Goodhart evened the score from a Nye draw control and assist just 10 seconds into the third quarter. But back-to-back markers from Krauss later in the period restored Powhatan’s lead to 9-7, and the Indians took a 10-8 edge into the last 12 minutes.

Mulitalo, who was named player of the year in Region 4D earlier in the week, came to life in the final frame, scoring three of her goals in the period. After a quiet start, the Wildcats had to tweak a few things on attack to get one of their stars more involved in the game.

“We were not getting the ball to her in the first half, so we actually changed two of our plays to get the ball in her hands,” Coach Nye said of Mulitalo. “She’s just a dynamic scorer, and she finds a way to get to the cage.”

RC seemed to raise its level of play across the board in the final period. The Wildcats outdrew Powhatan 5-2 in the fourth quarter; they also held a 9-3 advantage in shots and forced four Indian turnovers.

“After the third quarter, we had a talk with the team, and we were like, ‘If you’re not gonna do it for yourselves, you gotta do it for the seniors,’” said Maddie Dahl, one of six seniors on the RC roster. “We kicked it into gear.”

Mulitalo concurred with that assessment. “I don’t think we wanted it as much as we needed to until the fourth quarter,” she said. “We just got to their level really fast, as we should have.”

Mulitalo pulled the Wildcats to within 10-9 with 11:01 to play. Dahl tied things up at 10-10 at the 9:09 mark, scooping up a rebound and firing home after Homiak’s blast had ricocheted off the crossbar.

Krauss’s free-position goal with 5:35 to go gave the Indians an 11-10 lead. Mulitalo again pulled the Wildcats even with 3:34 remaining, setting up the frenetic finish.

Goodhart totaled three goals for RC, while Nye tallied one goal, three assists and nine draw controls. Shearer posted one goal and two assists, Homiak finished with one goal and one helper, and Dahl and Erskine forced two turnovers apiece.

Camp bagged a hat trick for Powhatan, while Emma Terry chipped in two assists. Halfon recorded seven saves, and Holt added three draw controls.

The Wildcats are hoping that their experience at this stage of the season pays off as they seek their first-ever appearance in a state championship game.

“This is our fourth year in a row being in the semis, so we’ve been there before,” Coach Nye said. “I think we were able to learn a lot from this game that we’ll be able to take into that semifinal game.”

But moving forward, the ’Cats know that they need to perform at a high level right from the opening draw.

“Going into the next game, we just have to come out with the same intensity that we left this game with,” Dahl said.

For a summary of last night’s game and state tournament updates, visit www. thenews-gazette.com, and see the full story and photos in next week’s newspaper.