Raider Comeback One Goal Short in Loss to Montgomery

The Hillsborough High School girls lacrosse team lost to visiting Montgomery 11-10 Monday as their frantic comeback fell one goal short.

1st

2nd

Final

Montogomery (7-4)

6

5

11

Hillsborough (8-2)

5

5

10

IN SHORT
Trailing 11-7 with less than five minutes to go, the Raiders tried to mount a comeback against the visiting Cougars but fell one goal short. With 4:15 remaining Kitty Dawson started the comeback with her second goal of the game and added another with 1:35 left. Kristina Vangeli scored with 29 seconds remaining to give the Raiders a chance to tie the score.

With only seconds to go, the Raider defense created a turnover and Gianna Minutillo rushed upfield in an attempt to tie the score. But the buzzer sounded before she could get off a shot to tie the score.

“I knew I only had maybe 5 seconds” said Minutillo talking about the last play of the game.

The story of this game however was not the comeback attempt, but the Raiders inability to hold early first half leads of 3-0 and 5-2. Too many mistakes, unforced turnovers, shots put directly into the Cougar goaltender for easy saves, and long offensive droughts doomed the Raiders.

For the first five minutes the Raiders dominated the play. Elyse Malecki set up Minutillo for the first Raider goal less than three minutes into the game.  Kitty Dawson put the Raiders up 2-0 at the 20:46 mark. Less than 40 seconds later Minutillo scored her second with Dawson assisting.

The Cougars called a time-out following the Raiders third goal and responded with two quick goals to cut the lead to 3-2. The Raiders answered back with Julia Mallozzi and Kristina Vangeli scoring 30 seconds apart at 16:45 and 16:15. They would be the last goals the Raiders would score in the half as the Cougars would score four straight to take a 6-5 lead into the second half.

The Raiders were able to tie the score at 6 and then at 7 early in the second half. But just like the first half the Raider offense was held off the board for 17 minutes as the Cougars would score four straight and take an 11-7 lead.

RAIDER OF THE GAME

Kitty Dawson - Lead the Raiders comeback attempt with two straight goals. Overall she had 3 goals and an assist.

OTHER KEY PERFORMANCES

• Gianna Minutillo - three goals and an assist
• Kristina Vangeli - three goals

THEY SAID IT

“Today was very disappointing. After their timeout we relaxed a little and made too many mistakes that they were able to capitalize on” – Gianna Minutillo

“We just lost the momentum” – Coach Beth Murrin

Up Next—Pingry on Wednesday 5/25 at 5:30 p.m.