FILE PHOTO
Maggie DiGrande and the Big Blue defeated the Danvers Falcons.
By MIKE ALONGI
SALEM — It’s been just about two weeks since the Swampscott girls lacrosse team last played a game, and coach Al Eaton wasn’t sure how his team would respond after the long layoff. After a slow start, the Big Blue rallied for six goals in the second half to power past Danvers, 9-5, at Bertram Field on Tuesday night.
“We haven’t played in so long and we kind of had a bad practice yesterday, so I wasn’t sure how we’d play today,” said Eaton. “But we came out and fought hard against a really good Danvers team, and everything clicked for us today.”
Maggie DiGrande and Emerson Laundry each had two goals for Swampscott (4-1), while Ocean Crawley-Sweeney had one goal and one assist. Grace DiGrande, Ellie Wright, Mary Miles and Emma Sutherland each had one goal.
One of the biggest stories of the game was the performance of goalkeeper Claire Powell, who stopped 16 total shots and made huge saves down the stretch.
“Claire was unbelievable tonight,” Eaton said. “This might have been her best game, she just made so many huge stops. A lot of players had their best game tonight, but she was a huge part of the win.”
For Danvers, Isabel McKenna had two goals and one assist, Morgan Mscisz scored two goals and Jess Barthelmess had one goal. Tiffany Foster and Lydia Runnals each had one assist.
The Falcons came out hot to start the game, taking advantage of the sluggish start by Swampscott. Just over 30 seconds into the game, Mscisz scored on a great pass from McKenna to take the early lead. Five minutes later, McKenna scored two goals in a two-minute span to stretch the lead to 3-0.
From there, Swampscott kicked it into gear. It started when Laundry made a steal near midfield and took it all the way in for a goal to get the Big Blue on the board with about 15 minutes left in the half. Wright added a goal with 7:29 to go, then Maggie DiGrande scored her first goal with 40 seconds left for a 3-3 tie going into halftime.
For Eaton and the Big Blue, there were many adjustments to make at halftime. It was all about playing their game.
“We were doing fine for the most part after that slow start, so we didn’t want to change things up too much,” Eaton said. “We just needed to keep moving the ball well and attacking, and we knew the chances would come.”
They did just that, scoring twice in the first 1:01 of the second half with goals from Crawley-Sweeney and Maggie DiGrande to jump out to a 5-3 lead. Danvers broke the Swampscott run when Barthelmess scored on a free position with 16:06 left, but the Big Blue answered with two more goals of their own to stretch the lead to 7-4 with just over seven minutes left. Mscisz scored to make it 7-5, but Swampscott closed with two more goals in the final five minutes to seal the victory.
The Big Blue will take on Medford on Friday. Danvers will travel to Marblehead for a game against the Magicians on Friday.