Quick start to each half helps Hollis Brookline take care of Windham (video)

HOLLIS - The Hollis Brookline High School girls lacrosse team wanted to get off to a good start during Thursday's game against Windham.

The Cavaliers did, taking a five-goal lead early in the first half, but when the Jaguars closed the gap just before halftime, they were in need of another strong opening.

HB got it, scoring two quick goals to open the second half while goalie Olivia Valentine came up with a handful of saves in a row to keep Windham off the board, as the Cavs picked up a 14-6 win over the Jaguars in a Division II game.

Valentine finished with 14 saves, including three on one Windham possession in the second half, after the Jaguars had scored to cut HB's lead to 9-4 with 14:52 remaining.

"She’s an amazing goalie and we’re lucky to have her," HB coach Jim Maxwell said. "Outside of the draw, having a solid goalie is the next most important thing. We’re lucky to have her. She’s an amazing player and she works hard at her trade."

Kelsey Sweeney led the Cavs (3-0) with five goals and four assists and Paisley Broadhurst also had five goals. Abbey Magnuszewski scored twice and added a helper while Tasha White and Rachel Cerato also had a goal each. White, Broadhurst and Magnuszewski also helped HB win 14 of 20 draws.

"That is one of our missions," Maxwell said. "I don’t know what the time of possession was but it probably leaned in our favor a little bit. This game, a lot of it is about the draw. It helps be able to do what we want to do on the offensive side. We can go down, settle it, and get a good shoot, that’s what we want."

The Cavs got what they wanted almost from the start, taking a 1-0 lead 2:55 into the game. A yellow card to White slowed HB's momentum, but after the Cavs killed off the penalty, Magnuszewski scored with 18:42 left in the half for a 2-0 lead.

That goal started a 3-0 run for HB over the next 2:06, as Broadhurst and Sweeney also scored, make it 4-0 less than 10 minutes into the game. White scored with 12:11 left in the half to make it 5-0 and the Jaguars took a timeout.

"The first 10 or 15 minutes was brutal for us, and after that initial timeout, I think from that point on, we didn’t see it on the scoreboard, but I think our hustle and our fight was substantially better," Windham coach Maura Murphy said. "I think we played aggressive and we played hard, but you can’t have the amount of turnovers that we had."

Windham (1-2) was finally able to hold off HB for a long strech, and Madi Connelly got the Jaguars on the board with 1:40 left in the half. Connelly, who finished with five goals, scored two more times around a goal by Sweeney, cutting HB's lead to three, 6-3, at halftime.

"It’s only 6-3, we can do this," Murphy said of her message at halftime. "Lacrosse is a game of runs and I said if you let them come into the second half scoring three or four goals, it’s going to be a longer second half."

But Magnuszewski opened the half with a goal just 58 seconds in and Braodhurst added another with 20 minutes to play to make it 8-3. Connelly picked up a yellow card a few minutes later, and although Windham was able to kill off the penalty, Cerato scored right after to make it 9-3 with 16:24 to play.

It looked like the Jaguars picked up some momentum when Connelly scored less than two minutes later and followed it up by winning the draw. But Valentine came up big in goal, closing the door on Windham, and the Cavs were able to add to the lead at the other end.

"Their goalie made some great saves, she had a lot of nice low kick saves," Murphy said. "Madi is one of our hardest workers, and that was clear (Thursday). She just kind of put the team on her shoulders, and I said at halftime, we needed a spark. She was that spark throughout the game."

HB returns to action Friday as it hosts Merrimack Valley in its final game before spring break, while Windham will host Hanover on Monday.