Pats battle back late, but fall to Panthers

Joe Russo
Posted 5/7/15

After going 0-11 in its initial season last year, the Johnston High School girls’ lacrosse team came up with its biggest win in program history with an exciting, 9-8, victory on Monday night over a …

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Pats battle back late, but fall to Panthers

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After going 0-11 in its initial season last year, the Johnston High School girls’ lacrosse team came up with its biggest win in program history with an exciting, 9-8, victory on Monday night over a Pilgrim team that has gone to the Division III finals in each of the past two seasons.

With the win, the Lady Panthers move into a tie for second place in Division III with Pilgrim and Westerly, who also sport 4-2 league records.

Pilgrim’s Hannah Page scored in the first minute of the game to get her team off to a good start. It was one of two goals scored in the first half for the Pilgrim junior, helping the visitors to a 4-2 halftime advantage. Junior Molly Lynch tallied two goals as well in the first half for the Pats.

As the second half opened, the Panthers would score five unanswered in a six minute span to overtake the Pats, 7-4. Johnston was led by Division III leading scorer, Isabella DiRaimo, who now has 42 goals on the year in only her second year playing high school lacrosse.

DiRaimo netted four goals for the Lady Panthers, but midway through the second half she received her second yellow card of the contest and was forced to sit out the remainder of the game.

Playing shorthanded, the Lady Panthers’ Grace Sarah, the second leading scorer on the team with 25 goals, stepped up and provided her team with a much needed boost by scoring two key goals down the stretch.

Page ended the Johnston run to make it a 7-5 game. She would also finish the game with four goals. Hannah Johnson and Page would trim the Panthers’ lead to 8-7, but Sarah’s goal with 3:36 to go in the game gave the home team a two-goal cushion.

The Pats fought back, as senior captain Emma Reilly’s goal made it a 9-8 game with only 1:30 remaining on the clock.

The Pats threatened to tie the game inside of a minute, but Johnston goalkeeper, Jacsmile Cassion, came up with the most important one of her 13 saves in the game to preserve the win.

“It was a great all-around win, especially when we were shorthanded at the end,” said Johnston head coach Jay Areson. “We were down two goals at halftime and we played with a lot of effort in the second half. It was big when Bella went down, but the rest of the team came through and our goalie Jacsmile Cassion did a great job for us tonight.”

Areson stressed the importance of winning the draws.

“In order to control the game you have to win the draws, and Dana Desmarais did a good job with that tonight.”

Desmarais would also record four assists on the night.

Pilgrim head coach Tom Flanders agreed on the importance of the draws.

“Johnston gained possession on the draws and capitalized on what I call our draw droughts,” Flanders said. “We decided we wanted to win too late in the game. We have to play a full 50 minutes – we only played about 20 minutes tonight. I figured the turning point in the game was when their leading scorer came out of the game, but they held on and played strong. It was a well fought game on both sides, they just wanted it more than us. Jay Areson has done a good job with this team, but we will get ourselves together and get organized. “

The Pats will look to get back in the win column when they host the Burrillville/Smithfield co-op team tomorrow evening at 5:15 p.m. They traveled to Mount Saint Charles Academy last night. Results were not available at press time.

Pilgrim will also be hosting its Coaches vs. Cancer/Senior Night on May 14, when it takes on East Providence at 6 p.m.

The Pats will be taking donations at the game. Those who wish to donate can make a check payable to the American Cancer Society.

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