Morrall stepped up to help Hopkinton girls lacrosse face adversity in D3 title game

In order for the Hopkinton High School girls lacrosse team to pull out its 12-11 win over the Derryfield School in last week's Division III championship game, the Hawks had to go through a handful of things they hadn't experienced all season long.

First, top-seeded Hopkinton found itself down two players, and it's leading scorer, after Lyndon Flanagan picked up her second yellow card of the day - the team's fifth overall - with more than 23 minutes still left in the game.

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Then, with the Hawks trying to figure out how they were going to manage to play shorthanded, No. 3 Derryfield took advantage and rallied from a four-goal deficit to take a 9-8 lead with 15:21 left in the game. For a team who had just four games all year decided by less than 10 goals, it was uncharted territory.

And then there was Ellie Morrall.

The Hopkinton senior missed last year's championship game loss to Laconia after an ACL injury earlier in the season, and although she had returned to full strength for 2019, Morrall wasn't often called upon to provide a lot of scoring for the Hawks.

But when the Hawks needed goals at the end of the game, Morrall was there, scoring twice in 15 seconds to put Hopkinton on top for good. She also helped the Hawks win 11 of 13 draws in the second half and finished with a game-high five goals.

"It’s phenomenal," Hopkinton teammate Amelia Bassett said of Morrall. "It’s amazing to watch her step up as a player. Lyndon and I have been the main scorers for years. Last year, she was out with her ACL (injury) and to see her come up this season really big, that’s what won the game for us (Tuesday). It was her. "

Had Morrall not been put in a similar situation in the semifinals, where she also had five goals in the Hawks' win over Bow, things might have been different.

"Scoring that, I was like ‘I can do this,’" she said. "I came here (Tuesday) with more confidence in myself, so I brought that to the game. We saw that we were down, but it was OK.

"Being down was a hard thing mentally to overcome. Our team is so skilled, and we wanted this so bad, we all just stepped up and just played our hardest."

Morrall's success on the draw also ended up being key, even though the Hawks turned the ball over in Derryfield's end after five of them. The extra time it for Hopkinton to bring the ball down just meant less time for the Cougars to score more with the advantage.

"Possession on offense," Bassett said. "I know we threw some away, but being able to possess it when they had three (players) on us at a time was really key."

The title is the first in the program's history and caps quite a turnaround for this year's Hopkinton seniors. The team was 5-9 the year coach Tim Bassett took over the varsity team and the Hawks went 6-8 when the seniors were freshman.

Since then, Hopkinton has compiled a record of 43-6 to go with a championship and a runner-up finish.

"They’re just such a great group," Tim Bassett said. "They’ve worked so hard for years. I started coaching five years ago, when they were eighth graders. We were losing 25-2 to these teams. It’s just great."