By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – The Carmel girls lacrosse team advanced to its third consecutive Class 2A state championship game Thursday night.
The Greyhounds started their semifinal game with Zionsville Tuesday at Noblesville’s Beaver Materials Stadium, but a thunderstorm pushed the contest back to Thursday. Carmel battled with the Eagles before pulling away in the fourth quarter to win 14-9.
“We shot a little bit better,” said Greyhounds coach Josh Miller. “Their goalie, credit to her, she was fantastic, made a lot of really good saves. But we just kept plugging away. Sometimes when you go up against a goalie like that, you tend to go into a shell and quit shooting, and we didn’t do that.”
Carmel led 2-1 in the first quarter Tuesday before the game was halted. Elle Tomalia and Breckin Hare scored the Greyhounds’ goals, then Zionsville got a goal before the storm came.
When the game resumed on Thursday, the Eagles tied the game at 2-2 with a quick goal. Tomalia put Carmel back in the lead just as fast by scoring, then Sophie Mock scored to get the Hounds up 4-2.
Zionsville scored before the end of the first quarter, then opened the second period with another goal to tie the game. Riley Putnam and Avery Goehl pushed Carmel back up 6-4 before the Eagles came back again to tie the contest at 6-6.
The pattern continued into halftime, with Mock putting in two goals to give the Greyhounds an 8-6 advantage at the break. After that, Carmel’s defense began to take over, shutting out Zionsville in the third period. During that quarter, the Greyhounds scored twice: Hare and Mock both got goals to give Carmel a 10-6 lead.
Tomalia added two more goals in the fourth quarter, giving her four for the game. Norah Rafferty and Hare also scored once during the fourth. Mock finished the game with four goals and Hare scored three goals.
The Greyhounds will play Guerin Catholic in the 2A state championship game, which takes place at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Beaver Materials Stadium.