By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – The Guerin Catholic girls lacrosse team has had an incredible season, and it got even better on Tuesday.
The Golden Eagles hosted the Class 2A Sectional 2 championship, taking on county opponent Hamilton Southeastern. It was an exciting game, with both teams scoring in bunches as well as playing tough defense. The Royals had Guerin Catholic down at halftime before the Golden Eagles rallied in the second half to win 7-5 and qualify for the state tournament.
Guerin quickly got out to a 2-0 lead with goals from Caitlin Carter and Alex Soucie. Southeastern came back just as fast, tying the game in the sixth minute; Jessie Lyons and Sam Borgert scored goals within 32 seconds of each other.
Ellie Fitzpatrick scored with 16:52 left to put the Royals in front for the first time, then Lyons and Sydney Schena added goals to give Southeastern a 5-2 lead. The Golden Eagles began a comeback during the last two minutes of the first half: Claire Alic scored at the 1:45 mark, then Ella Bellflower put in a goal with 14 seconds left. That made the halftime score 5-4, HSE.
“It seems like every we’ve ever played has been ebbs and flows,” said GC coach Brian Billand. “It’s just who can control the ball at the end of the game. Our team started pulling together. We had a lot of turnovers in the first half, just a ton of turnovers. We just pulled it all together and played our type of lacrosse. But they’re a tough team to beat. They’re a high-quality team.”
The second half was pretty much defense all the way. Neither team scored until the 20:26 mark, when Soucie tied the game with her second goal. Eight minutes later, Soucie delivered the go-ahead score, giving her three goals for the game and putting Guerin Catholic up 6-5.
“We did what we needed to do on the draw circle in the first half,” said Royals coach Rex Holliday. “We controlled the ball, we controlled the clock and for the most part, controlled the score in the first half and it completely flipped on us.”
Alic finished the game with her second goal of the night with 4:52 left, and the Golden Eagles’ defense held on from there. With the win, Guerin Catholic kept its record undefeated for the season at 18-0.
“We had a lot of tough games,” said Billand. “We had to go through Cathedral and Carmel and Bishop Chatard. They’re tough teams to beat.” The Golden Eagles also traveled to Pittsburgh to play two tough teams in that area, and won there as well.
Guerin Catholic will play Bishop Chatard, the Sectional 3 champion, at next week’s semi-state. The other semi-state features Carmel and Evansville Memorial; sites and times will be determined soon.
In the Class 1A tournament, Westfield is back in the semi-state, having beaten Harrison and Brownsburg to win Sectional 6. The Shamrocks will play Heritage Christian in one semi-final, with Chesterton and Evansville Central playing the other game.