Neuqua Valley girls lacrosse travels to St. Francis for an IHSA Sectional First Round matchup. The Wildcats look to snap a two-game losing streak, while the Spartans have won two of their last three. The winner plays top-seed Benet Academy in the Sectional Quarterfinals. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
St. Francis opens the Quarterfinal with a 5-0 lead over Neuqua
The Spartans display some nice ball movement before Sophia Hillebrand scoops and scores for the first points of tonight’s contest, giving the Spartans an early advantage
St. Francis looks to continue the pressure, forcing the Wildcats to commit a foul for a penalty shot. However, wildcat goalie, Brooke Kirchner, stands her ground, coming up with a nice save, keeping the score 1-0
Next possession, the Wildcats commit another foul, sending the Spartans back for another penalty shot. This time, Coco Kennedy connects as St. Francis leads 2-0 at the end of one
30 seconds into the second, the Spartans look for more points and get them as Maria Knutsen scores, as she can bounce it in the bottom right, the Spartans lead 3-0
Neuqua Valley girls lacrosse added a couple of goals from Gilmartin and Grinnip in the IHSA Sectional First-Round matchup
St. Francis looks to continue to press Kirchner on multiple scoring attempts. However, Kirchner shuts them down with fantastic back-to-back saves
The Spartans don’t let Kirchner’s impressive goalkeeping keep them from scoring, as Lauren Atkins scores the second goal of the quarter.
Atkins follows up her score with an assist as she locates Natalie Pasdo for the goal, as the Spartans hold a commanding 5-0 lead at the half.
The wildcats trail 6-0 after another Spartan score to open up the third. Neuqua looks for some momentum off the inbound and gets it as Kaylie Gilmartin scores, but the Wildcats still trail 6-1 at the end of three.
Neuqua looks to continue feeding off the offense to start the fourth, as Gilmartin connects with senior Veronica Grinnip for the score. Despite the wildcats’ second-half scoring, they would come up short, 8-3. St. Francis moves on to play Benet in the Sectional Quarterfinal.
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