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Pilgrim moves into semifinals with dominant win

Posted 5/27/14

Based on the score at halftime, the Pilgrim girls’ lacrosse team seemed like it was in a pretty good spot against Westerly in the Division III quarterfinals on Thursday. The Pats led 8-3.

But …

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Pilgrim moves into semifinals with dominant win

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Based on the score at halftime, the Pilgrim girls’ lacrosse team seemed like it was in a pretty good spot against Westerly in the Division III quarterfinals on Thursday. The Pats led 8-3.

But Haley McCusker, the leading goal-scorer in the state, picked up her second yellow card towards the tail end of the first half, resulting in an ejection and leaving Pilgrim to play 25 minutes without its best offensive threat.

Everybody stepped up.

The Pats scored the first seven goals of the second half and dominated possession, easily out-distancing the Bulldogs 16-5 to advance to the D-III semifinals for the second straight season.

Pilgrim, the third seed in the playoffs, will take on No. 2 Smithfield today at Bryant University at 4 p.m.

Pilgrim ended up with goals from eight different players, flashing its depth and extending its winning streak to six games.

“Someone can rattle off 10 goals on you like nothing," said Pilgrim head coach Tom Flanders. “I was more than concerned at that point. I didn’t know how they’d react to it, and they just played like champs. That’s what they had to do.”

The Pats scored the first six goals of the game to seize control early, before Westerly, the No. 6 seed, struck back with two. The Bulldogs had it as close as 7-3 before McCusker scored with 3:28 to go before the break.

Not long afterwards though, she was on the bench, and Pilgrim had to finish the job without her.

“Everyone played, and we didn’t lose anything when the substitutions were made,” Flanders said. “It was a total team effort, and it had to be, especially when you’re losing a player of Haley McCusker’s caliber.”

Three minutes into the second half, Clare Briney got the scoring started for Pilgrim with a goal on a free position. Two minutes later, Westerly’s Abigail Ridler was stoned by Pilgrim goalie Alex Pouliot, and the Pats went the other way quickly, leading to a goal by Emily Fluette.

“Our freshmen goalkeeper, she played unbelievable for us,” Flanders said.

Just over a minute later, Fluette started a two-on-one rush with Sophia DeLuca, and DeLuca eventually put the ball past Westerly goalie Kyra McCormick.

That made the score 11-3, and Birney scored with 16:41 remaining to give Pilgrim a nine-goal lead. Paula Cavanagh – playing place of McCusker – scored three consecutive goals in a 2:22 span to really open the game up and give the Pats a 15-3 lead.

“You’re usually counting on those goals,” Flanders said. “So someone’s got to chip in, someone’s got to do it. Paula Cavanagh, she was the substitution that went in for her. She answered the bell.”

The Bulldogs never got closer than 11 the rest of the way. DeLuca scored for Pilgrim with 6:27 to play before Westerly got two goals in the final four minutes.

During the regular season, Westerly – the No. 6 seed – scored 11 and 10 goals in two losses to Pilgrim. This time, the Bulldogs only got five, with the defensive trio of Alexia Martins, Birney and Jen King, plus Pouliot, leading the way on the back end.

“They were fantastic,” Flanders said. “They were smothering. Giving up five goals, it’s unbelievable. You’ve got a freshman in goal, and their defense was just stifling.”

McCusker actually led the team with four goals, while Cavanagh had three. Birney, Kelsey Martin and DeLuca had two each, Hannah Page, Fluette and Johnson all had one. Pouliot made nine saves.

“That’s one thing that last year’s team was – mentally tough,” Flanders said. “Today definitely shows that their mental toughness is there. When you lose your premier scorer and you’ve still got the clock going with 10 goals ahead, that was a major accomplishment for this team.”

Pilgrim will now try to reach the D-III championship game for the second straight year. Its opponent in the semifinals, Smithfield, beat the Pats 10-4 on April 29, but Flanders feels his group is much-improved since then. That loss was during a stretch for Pilgrim in which it dropped three out of four games.

Since then, all it’s done is win.

“I think they got themselves into a couple situations where it was a lot of pressure and maybe just their inexperience showed,” Flanders said. “Then they started saying, ‘We can do the same thing. We can play. This is our time.’ I think they realized that.”

Top-seeded Chariho and No. 4 Mount St. Charles will play in the other semifinal. The championship game will then be held Saturday at Brown University.

The Pats are one game away from being there.

“I feel confident, no matter who it is,” Flanders said.

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