Souhegan girls lacrosse starts fast, holds on to beat Bedford

BEDFORD - The Souhegan High School girls lacrosse team has been victorious 15 times this season, and each one has been different for the Sabers.

Take Tuesday's 16-12 win over Bedford.

It was the Bulldogs' senior night, and Souhegan knew that meant its opponent was going to come out energized and motivated for a win.

"Every win is different," Souhegan's Madison Angulas said. "This was senior night and you know a lot of people get really hyped on their senior night and they want to win. Bedford is a comeback team. They will come back and get you if you let up. We knew they were going to come back and we knew we had to stay strong."

The Sabers jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the first half and had to hang on in the second, as Bedford twice cut the lead to three goals. But in the end, Souhegan (15-1) had enough to win its sixth in a row.

Brigid Casey, Abigail Cranney and Samantha Jay - all freshmen - each scored four goals for the Sabers and senior Katherine Almeida added two scores and three assists. Souhegan led 5-0 a little more than eight minutes into the game and went up 7-1 midway through the first half

But for all the scoring Souhegan did early, it was the defense and goalie Meaghan Allard (eight saves) who got things started. Bedford (9-6) won six of the game's first nine draws, but couldn't get more than one goal against the Sabers' defense.

"We're trying to tweak some things and trying to switch some things up, see different personnel down there," Souhegan coach Maren Petropulos said. "You wouldn't think that at the end of the season, we're still moving around, playing kids, but we are. We have a lot of kids that can play. We've been able to count on (Allard) all season."

With Emma Estabrook, who usually takes the draw, and Juliane Donohue, who has been a big part of the defense since switching from attack a month ago, both ailing, other players stepped up.

"We were trying to stay very tight," Angulas said. "We knew that the middle was going to be open a lot, so we tried to stay really tight on their cutters. We're also a very connected team. We tend to know where we are and we're very close. We know how to work and switch and know how to keep up the brick walls.

"Meaghan (Allard) is a lifesaver. She is, as a sophomore, the most confident, poised person on this team. It goes out to her. She is phenomenal. She's one of the loudest people on defense."

Bedford got three goals and five assists from Kelsey Linehan and Zoey Shapiro had three goals and two assists. Kennedy Boyle and Mackenzie Chou also had two goals apiece and Sierra Soghikian made eight saves.