By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – Hamilton Southeastern won a hard-fought, all-county girls lacrosse game at Noblesville’s Beaver Materials Field on Thursday, overcoming a halftime deficit on its way to an 11-10 victory.
It was the first win of the season for the Royals, who are 1-1 for the year, also giving new head coach Rex Holliday his first victory as well. Southeastern trailed at halftime, came back in the second half with a four-goal burst to take control of the game, then held off a late charge by the Millers.
“We were down early, they fought back, took the lead,” said Holliday. “Got down to the end of the game, gave up a couple bad passes toward the end, gave them opportunities. But at the end of the game, they kept composure and stuck to it.”
The Royals scored right away, with Jessie Lyons finding the back of the net just eight seconds into the game. Emma Hammond answered for the Millers seconds later to tie things up, then Lyons scored again to give Southeastern a 2-1 lead. All of that happened in the first minute of the game.
Noblesville scored three consecutive goals for a 4-2 lead, with Nataley Blackburn putting in the first two scores and Marisha Woehler getting the third. The Millers would go on to hold a 6-5 advantage at halftime, with Blackburn and Woehler both scoring again. Ellie Fitzpatrick, Jenna Jenkins and Sydney Schena all added goals for the Royals.
Southeastern’s Sam Borgert got the first goal of the second half to tie the game again, but Maya Hill responded with a score, and Noblesville led 7-6. The Royals took over after that, pouring in four quick goals to move ahead 10-7 with 17:12 left in the contest. Ellie Nawa put in HSE’s first two goals, then Ashley Springer and Fitzpatrick both scored.
Southeastern coach Rex Holliday credited his team with keeping its composure, which helped the Royals get the comeback win. Southeastern played Guerin Catholic last week and fell to the Golden Eagles; the coach said his team “lost our composure a couple times” during that contest.
“We worked on it this week about keeping composure, staying in the game, keeping your head in the game no matter what,” said Holliday. “Whether we’re up by 10 or we’re down by 10, or up by one or down by one, it’s the same mentality throughout the game.”
Blackburn and Nawa traded goals, which kept the Royals in front 11-8. Blackburn then added her fifth goal of the game with 9:09 left, and Chloe Barnett scored with under two minutes to go, but Southeastern was able to hold on after that.
Nawa finished the game with three goals, while Lyons and Fitzpatrick both scored twice.
“This is probably one of the deepest teams I’ve coached,” said Holliday. “Our first half substitution was a little bit better as far as playing time than our second half. We saw a couple things in the second half we wanted to stick with. But even in the first half, every single girl that came into that game played to the potential that we expected.”
Blackburn totaled five goals for the Millers, with Woehler scoring two.
“I think they played wonderfully,” Noblesville coach Jason Barnett said of his team. “This is a game that was very exciting to watch and to coach. The girls worked hard. HSE has a very fast team, a very good technical team. I think we held our own very well. They went back and forth a few times and we are nothing but proud of the girls in the way they played tonight.”