Pinkerton girls lacrosse holds on for win over Windham (video)

DERRY - In the end, the Pinkerton Academy and Windham High School girls lacrosse teams got what they wanted Saturday afternoon.

A competitive game against a quality opponent where both sides had to battle through adversity in a quest to improve before the postseason begins at the end of the month.

Pinkerton overcame an early deficit with a late first-half run, and when fatigue started to settle in and Windham started to make a comeback, the Astros were able to hang on for an 11-7 win in a battle of contending teams from Division I and II.

Abby Jowett led the way for Pinkerton (13-3), scoring six goals to go with an assist, while Ali Lamphere added three goals Amy Quigley had a goal and an assist. Caroline Daziel had a goal and two assists and Caitlin Seleny had two assists.

"I thought we had a great first half," Pinkerton coach Rob Daziel said. "We got a little sloppy in the second half and Windham has some decent athletes, so they’re going to capitalize on that. We turned it over five times I think in the first part of the second half. That hurt. We let them back in and they got energized."

Part of that great first half was the performance by goalie Lauren Sweeney, who had five of her seven saves before halftime, including a couple early when Windham could have gone in front. Instead, the Astros were able to close the half on a 6-0 run to take a 9-3 lead into the break.

"Lauren had some big saves," Rob Daziel said. "She had five saves in the first half. It’s kind of a curse. It’s 9-3 and the kids think it should be 18-6 at the end. We talked about it at halftime. It’s tough to play from behind so I’m glad we were ahead."

Naomi Menczywor came on in relief of Sweeney late and made two saves for the Astros.

Windham (11-4) got two goals apiece from Maria Killian and Morgan Ross while Bella Connelly, Chloe Hall and Cali Behling each added a goal. Alex Perkins made seven saves for the Jaguars, who were playing a top team from D1 for the second day in a row; Windham lost to Bishop Guertin 18-5 on Friday.

"It was great," Windham coach Russ Perkins said. "They’re in D1, we’re in D2, and typically in the past, that’s something we let get into our heads before we get on the field. I think we did that in the first five minutes, but then we had a chat at halftime and said we’re in this game if we just stop making mistakes. They did that and we kind of won the second half."

The Jaguars had a 2-1 lead early, but the Astros scored a couple of quick goals to pull in front 3-2. Windham tied it up on Hall's goal with 13:11 left in the first half, and the Jaguars won the ensuing draw, but couldn't capitalize.

Caroline Daziel scored moments later off the turnover, starting Pinkerton on a run of five goals in a little more than eight minutes to give the Astros an 8-3 lead. Jowett made it 9-3 with 6.5 seconds left in the half to give Pinkerton a six-goal cushion.

Jowett made it 10-3 early in the second half, but Windham was able to start chipping away at the lead. Goals by Ross, Behling and Connelly made it a four-goal game with 13:45 to play.

But Jowett scored again 1:17 later to put Pinkerton up 11-6 and the Astros started to slow things down after that score.

"Trying to take some time off," Rob Daziel said. "We turned it over, so why not hold on to the ball and force them to play us. The middies were getting fatigued out there. Mental fatigue and exhaustion."

Windham got another goal from Killian to get back within four, but the Jaguars had trouble getting the ball away from the Astros, and when they did, they had trouble holding on to it.

"We taught the girls to pressure the body and don’t swing for the stick, stay out of the sphere," Russ Perkins said. "It went well. We forced two turnovers, but unfortunately, we turned it back over."