SWAMPSCOTT — It’s safe to say that the No. 2 seed Swampscott girls lacrosse team came ready to play in the first round of the postseason. The Big Blue started off Wednesday’s Division 2 North first round game against No. 15 Stoneham with eight straight goals and cruised to a 15-3 win at Blocksidge Field.
Swampscott coach Al Eaton was pleased to see his team start with plenty of energy.
“It’s great to see that energy (starting the tournament),” Eaton said. “That was very important to us. We’re going to see a lot of very strong teams should we continue on. We need to be ready for them. We need to come out hot every game we play in. It’s a big deal. You don’t want to be playing any of these games from behind.”
The Big Blue moved the ball well with six different goal scorers. Reese Robertson led the way with four goals while Emerson Laundry and Harper Clopton each scored three. Elizabeth Green and Grace DiGrande added two goals each and Scarlett Ciciotti scored one.
Sara Hamada-Mohamed had five saves.
It didn’t take Swampscott long to spread the offense around with all six goal scorers getting on the board in the first ten minutes. Early in the game Robertson capitalized on a Stoneham turnover and scored the next possession to give Swampscott a 1-0 lead.
A minute later, another turnover gave Green a corner opportunity and she found the back of the net to put the Big Blue ahead 2-0. Next, Clopton swung a nice pass to Robertson who scored again to stretch Swampscott’s lead to 3-0.
The Big Blue weren’t done, adding three goals in a 43-second span thanks to three faceoff wins from Clopton. Laundry, Clopton and Ciciotti each scored in the run to stretch the lead to 6-0.
Later in the first quarter, Nikki Rosa forced a key turnover that led to a goal from Robertson and DiGrande scored on a corner opportunity to cap the 8-0 start.
Just under 10 minutes into the quarter, Stoneham broke the shutout with a goal to cut the lead to 8-1 but Swampscott didn’t lose any momentum. Green got the Big Blue back on track with a goal and Laundry added another just 15 seconds later.
DiGrande, Robertson and Clopton each added another tally in the final few minutes of the first half to give the Big Blue a 13-1 lead at the midway break.
With running time and a comfortable lead in the second half, the scoring settled down. After a few failed Stoneham possessions Clopton got the Big Blue back on the board and stretched the lead to 14-1.
Laundry capped the scoring for Swampscott with a goal sandwiched between a pair of Stoneham tallies to cap off the 15-3 win.
“We were just trying to play our game and I thought we did,” Eaton said. “We got a few more fouls than I would’ve liked but otherwise I’m happy with the outcome.”
The Big Blue (15-2) will have a few days to rest before hosting No. 10 Tyngsboro in the sectional quarterfinal Saturday (3:30).
“We don’t know much about (Tyngsboro),” Eaton said. “I believe we saw them a year or two ago in the tournament. But they beat Lynnfield and Lynnfield gave us a battle last time we played them. We’re expecting a good game. We just want to continue to play our game and hopefully that leads to goals.”