Merrimack girls lacrosse holds off Bedford

MERRIMACK – The Merrimack High School girls lacrosse team had gone 14 minutes without a goal.

With the Tomahawks in trouble in the second half against Bedford, they turned to a reliable scorer to get back on track.

Lauren Perry scored six goals, three in the final 11 minutes Friday, to help Merrimack hold off the Bulldogs 15-11 in a Division II game. Tara Quinnell added four goals and an assist for the ’Hawks and Cat Green made 13 saves, including several in the second half after Bedford had twice cut the lead to one goal.

Down three at halftime, Bedford scored the first two goals in the second half, cutting the lead to 10-9 with 12:52 left in the game, forcing Merrimack (8-1 in Division II) to take a timeout.

“That’s the longest we’ve gone without a goal,” Merrimack coach Beth Rodgers said. “I think there was a sense of urgency with the girls and it was unnecessary. We took a lot of bad shots. We didn’t move the goalie at all and we made a lot of really bad offensive decisions. We took really, really poor shots.

“They had changed their defense, so we discussed how we could attack that defense in a way that was going to work for us. We talked about taking the extra second to make the right decision on a pass and not force it.”

Perry gave Merrimack a two-goal lead a few minutes after the timeout. Bedford’s Alex Fink answered, but Perry scored again 11 seconds later to make it 12-10 and starting the ’Hawks on a 4-0 run to go up by five with 3:57 left in the game.

“I thought we played great,” Bedford coach Christine Hodgdon said. “We didn’t capitalize on our possessions on offense and we made their goalie look good. We had some turnovers at tough points in the game.

“We have been pretty good after halftime. We had the momentum going into halftime and we definitely brought it out after and that helps.”

Drew Shapiro led Bedford (5-2) with three goals and two assists while Aleah MacKay, Julie Murphy and Fink had two goals apiece. Caitlin Heaps and Kelsey Linnehan each had a goal and an assist for the Bulldogs and Ashley Maddox made nine saves.

Merrimack also got two goals and an assist from Emily Pollard while Maegan Howe (three assists), Amanda Dionne (two assists) and Amber Olson had a goal each.

The ’Hawks return to action on Monday when they play a non-division game at Souhegan. Bedford also plays on Monday, when it hosts Hanover.