AUGUSTA — Mt. Ararat’s lead evaporated during a five-minute stretch in their girls lacrosse season opener Friday afternoon against Cony.
The Eagles are experienced, though, so they didn’t panic. Instead, they turned a potential letdown into a hard-fought win.
Logan Norton scored with 1:07 remaining to lift Mt. Ararat a 10-9 victory over Cony at Fuller Field. Cony had scored four straight goals to tie the game before Norton’s winner.
“We’ve been working on our composure and having a lot of poise and confidence and being able to trust ourselves as players, and that paid off today,” said Norton. “We had a lot of trust in each other, and we had good passes on our transitions.”
How Mt. Ararat did it
• The Eagles answered every Cony run. The Rams scored back-to-back goals to tie the game at 3-3, but Mt. Ararat responded with two in a row. The Eagles then scored twice in the final minute of the third quarter to go up 8-5, before Cony rallied to tie it.
• Mt. Ararat (1-0) got a great game in goal from Abby Pinard. The sophomore made eight saves — six in the first half — for the Eagles, who won despite Cony having a 17-15 advantage in shots on goal.
“(Abby) volunteered for goalie last year because we needed someone to do it, and she wanted to do it again,” said Mt. Ararat coach Brittany Vogt. “She’s still new to it, but she’s doing a great job for us.”
What it means
• It was a good start to the season for Mt. Ararat, which returns the bulk of its roster, including six seniors, and hopes to make a deep playoff run after going 14-1 last season.
• A younger Cony squad showed resilience. The Rams followed Mt. Ararat’s late go-ahead goal by producing one last chance of their own.
“We called a timeout (after they went up 9-5), and we talked about, ‘OK, we’re going to see right now what we’re made of,’” said Cony coach Gretchen Livingston. “We fought back, and we had an opportunity late that just didn’t go our way. … I really couldn’t have asked for more.”
They said it
“(Evelyn Goudreau and I) definitely hesitated on that pass-and-catch (on the winning goal), but I worked on getting around the crease and trusted my team telling me that someone was going to be there. It was a great feeling, and I’m appreciative that Ev gave that to me.” — Logan Norton
“I’m really proud of my defense; holding Mt. Ararat to (10 goals) is great. We had a couple letdowns where some cutters and fast breaks got us, but overall, we’re still young, and it was a really solid performance coming out of the gate from this crew.” — Gretchen Livingston
Stat leaders
• Mt. Ararat: Islah Godo (four goals), Evelyn Goudreau (two goals, two assists), Logan Norton (two goals), Abby Pinard (eight saves).
• Cony: Casey Monson (five goals), Abby Morrill (two goals), Gabby Vachon (goal, two assists), Avery Maxim (five saves)
Up next
• Mt. Ararat: vs. Oxford Hills, 7 p.m. Friday (April 25)
• Cony: vs. Erskine Academy, 11 a.m. Tuesday
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