BEVERLY — The first half was played to a draw, but the Swampscott girls lacrosse team netted five goals in the second half and ended up hanging on to beat Northeastern Conference foe Beverly, 7-6, at Hurd Stadium Friday afternoon. The game came down to a defensive stand by Swampscott over the final two minutes of the game, something that was a welcome sight for coach Al Eaton.
“It was a really hard game for us and we had to move some pieces around and had players playing in positions they’re not used to, so to see the effort the girls put forth was great,” said Eaton. “Everyone stepped up and did what they had to do for us to pull out this win.”
Grace DiGrande led Swampscott with two goals and one assist, while Harper Clopton had two goals. Elizabeth Green had one goal and one assist, while Nikki Rosa and Emerson Laundry scored one goal each.
Despite losing the game, the day wasn’t a total loss for Beverly as two players hit career milestones. Sabrina Beaudry notched her 200th career point, while Brooke Baekey scored her 100th career goal.
Beaudry led the way for the Panthers with three goals and two assists, while Baekey, Emma Knott and Meghan Cotraro each scored one goal.
It was a low-scoring first half, and all of the goals came within the first 10 minutes of action. It started with Green’s goal on a free position to get Swampscott on the board at 1-0 just three minutes into the game. It took the Panthers a few minutes to respond, but when they did they netted two goals in a three-minute span (one from Knott and one from Cotraro) to take a 2-1 lead. Clopton tied the score at 2-2 with her first goal of the game a couple minutes later, and then both teams went scoreless for the final 12 minutes of play to take a 2-2 tie into the halftime break.
The second half was a half of runs. It started with a Swampscott run, as DiGrande and Clopton netted goals within two minutes of each other to give the Big Blue a 4-2 lead. Beverly responded with a run of its own after back-to-back goals by Beaudry — the first of which secured her 200th point — tied the score at 4-4 with just under 17 minutes to play.
After about a five-minute lull in the scoring, Swampscott went on the run that would provide the eventual game-winner. It started with Rosa’s goal on a free position to take back the lead at 5-4, then DiGrande and Laundry added one each over the next three minutes to take a three-goal lead at 7-4.
Beverly went on one final run over the final five minutes, getting goals from Beaudry and Baekey to cut the deficit to 7-6. The Panthers even had possession of the ball in the offensive zone for the last two full minutes of the game, but Swampscott allowed them to only get two shots off. The lock-down defense was key in pulling out the win for the Big Blue.
“The defensive takeaways were huge for us all night, but especially at the end of the game,” said Eaton. “Beverly has some really talented scorers, so we had to be disciplined and I think we did a really good job of that.”
Swampscott (6-2) has the weekend off before getting back in action against a tough Hamilton-Wenham team Monday (3:30).