The Girls Varsity Lacrosse team hosted the Northgate Broncos on Friday night. The Dons showed some nerves early in the game, allowing the Broncos to score in the first minute. From there both teams traded possession multiple times with turnovers back and forth. The Dons finally broke through with senior Grace Imrie scoring off of a nice pass by fellow senior Jenna Steele with just under five minutes left in the quarter. The Dons controlled the draw and scored again moments later, this time with freshman Grace Colaco finding the back of the net. These two plays by “The Graces” were foreshadowing what was to come.
The Dons kept the momentum going early in the second half with junior Campbell Evans drawing a foul and converting her 8m to bring the score to 3-1 in favor of the Dons. Less than 30 seconds later, senior Tea Smith passed to fellow senior Ella Thomason who scored a strong crease roll shot. The Broncos bounced back, winning the draw and scoring quickly for a score of 4-2. The next goal for the Dons was another 8m shot, this time drawn by Grace Imrie, her second goal of the game. A few minutes later the Dons were down a player after a yellow card and the Broncos took advantage, scoring and bringing the score to 5-3. The final few minutes were a whirlwind of activity on both sides of the ball. Grace Imrie struck again, this time on a yellow flag; 6-3 for the Dons. Shortly after, the Dons were on defense and fouled a Bronco attacker. Senior goalie Addie Martin made a great save on the ensuing shot. The next exciting play had Evans and freshman Emily Roberts pressuring the Bronco’s goalie outside of the crease, forcing her to turn the ball over to Tea Smith who swiftly took advantage of the empty net. The Dons controlled the draw again, going on offense, with Evans drawing an 8m and scoring. The Broncos looked to narrow the gap before halftime, winning the draw and drawing a foul, but luckily didn’t score.
A few minutes into the second half freshman Cat Liu drew an 8m, passing to Grace Colaco who had a strong finish to the net. The Dons and Broncos traded possession until the Broncos scored with just under three minutes left in the quarter. The Dons had a hard time clearing the ball out of the defensive end until Grace Imrie took the ball coast to coast and scored, with the score now 10-5 in the Dons’ favor.
The Dons started the final quarter with Steele finding Grace Colaco who scored again, her third of the game. Later Martin made a spectacular save, closing the door on the Broncos’ hopes of finding momentum. The Dons were peppering shots on the offensive side of the ball, just missing multiple times. When the Dons went down a player again on another yellow card, Martin made another awesome save, closing the door to the Broncos. If you guessed that one of our Graces scored next, you would be correct, this time Grace Imrie was assisted by Thomason on the play. Grace Colaco won the following draw, one of six draw controls she had during the game. A few minutes later, Smith drew and scored another 8m draw for the Dons, bringing the score to 13-5. Grace Imrie won the draw this time, tallying four draw controls of her own. Smith then scored her hat trick goal of the game off of a nice pass by Liu. The Broncos managed to score off of an 8m shot. Grace Imrie was fouled and got the ball on the 12m, closed the distance with agile footwork and scored her 6th (!) goal of the night. The Dons weren’t quite done though. After getting hit by a stick to the head, Steele scored the final goal of the night. The final score was 16 for the Dons and 6 for the Broncos. And, for those of you who are curious, I wrote the name “Grace” 11 times in this article!
The Dons look forward to hosting Monte Vista on Tuesday night at 7pm. Go Dons!