Wave lose a wild one
St. Anthony’s (NY), nation’s No. 1 team, edges Darien in triple OT
DARIEN — It was the current No. 1 ranked high school girls lacrosse team in the country versus last season’s wire-to-wire No. 1.
And it totally lived up to the billing.
Brooke Long scored with 32.9 seconds remaining in a third overtime to give St. Anthony’s (NY), the top-ranked team in the USA Lacrosse National Top 25, a dramatic 5-4 victory over Darien Thursday night in Darien.
The defensive battle featured terrific performances from the two goalies, both of whom are Division I commits. Darien’s Hope Schoudel (10 saves) will play for Duke, and St. Anthony’s Alexandra Zenk (8 saves) will play for North Carolina.
“It was phenomenal goaltending on both sides,” Darien coach Lisa Lindley said. “Hope was outstanding and my D played well. St. Anthony’s is a quality team and we were right there. We could’ve had a different outcome.”
“It’s really special that women’s lacrosse has come to a point where the best players on the field are the goalkeepers,” St. Anthony’s coach Darcy Messina said. “You’ve got to hand it all to their Duke-bound senior goalie that Darien has. She made unconscious saves and so did our goalie. It was fun to watch both goalkeepers.”
Darien, which was No. 1 in the USA Lacrosse rankings last spring, has now played three straight one-goal games against top 10 teams. The Wave (4-2) lost to No. 3 McDonogh (MD) 5-4 on Saturday and defeated No. 9 Yorktown (NY) 10-9 on Monday.
St. Anthony’s (7-0) took over the No. 1 ranking two weeks ago and this week defeated Connecticut’s top two teams, including New Canaan 10-7 on Saturday.
“Connecticut is insanely a hotbed of women’s lacrosse in more ways than one,” Messina said. “We’re grateful that we were able to play New Canaan.
“They play a very disciplined and organized game of lacrosse, they don’t make a lot of mistakes and we saw that again tonight from Darien. I think you’re going to see both of those teams in states in May.”
Schoudel’s performance featured several huge stops with the game on the line. She kept the game tied by stopping a free position attempt with 1:10 remaining in regulation, and then
made three more saves in the first two three-minute overtime periods.
She gave credit to the Wave defense, which was led by Maggie Bellissimo, Lyle Brown, Isabel Alini and Sophie Haas.
“They’re a great team, they have a lot of good shooters, a lot of good shooters going to great schools, but our defense did a great job holding them in this game,” Schoudel said. “But I feel like we have a lot to work on amongst all the team. Our main goal is at the end of the season.”
The first 15 minutes were scoreless before the Friars broke out on top with consecutive goals from the North Carolinabound Tess Calabria in the second quarter.
Darien finally solved Zenk with 2:12 to play in the half, when Holmes set up Hope Hapgood for a goal, leaving the Wave down 2-1 at the break.
The Blue Wave trailed by two late in the third quarter, but forced overtime with a goal from Kelly Holmes in the closing seconds of the third and the equalizer from Annabel Adams with 9:34 to go in regulation.
The defenses then held firm for the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter and through two overtimes.
The winning play came when Katherine Rathjen fired a pass across the circle to Long on the far post and Long sent it low for the goal.
For Darien, there were several missed opportunities throughout the game and in the three overtimes, but the offense didn’t click.
“We played a strong game,” Lindley said. “We got fatigued in the end, but our problem was on offense. We don’t have shooters and that caught up with us. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game, but we just couldn’t bury our shots. Until that gets corrected, I don’t know how this is going to play out.”
Players of the game Hope Schoudel, Darien and Alexandra Zenk, St. Anthony’s: The two goalie put on a fantastic show, combining for 20 saves, none of them easy.
Quotable
“It’s been a big learning curve. I’m proud of the way some of the players have fought through and how we’ve stuck with it to the end. But we definitely have a lot to work on coming for our next games.” — Hope Schoudel on Darien’s recent stretch of games against national opponents.