A road loss in Amherst followed by an electrifying comeback victory in Londonderry left the Pinkerton Academy girls’ lacrosse squad contemplating its 3-2 record at the end of last week.
Coach Rob Daziel saw his Lady Astros take a 14-7 loss on the chin from the host Souhegan High Lady Sabers in Amherst Thursday, April 21 to slip to 2-2 on the campaign. But the Pinkerton crew bumped its 2016 record back up over the .500 mark with an 11-10, comeback victory over the Londonderry High Lady Lancers in Beeman Trophy competition at LHS on Saturday, April 23.
In the loss to Souhegan, the Astros found themselves trailing by a 6-2 tally at halftime, and they were outscored by an 8-5 margin in the second half as a shot at victory slipped away.
Dani Tompkins paced the PA effort with three goals, Ali Davis scored twice, and Ariel Vaillancourt and Nola Wesche each managed one marker. PA goalie Kyra Goucher made eight stops in her team’s net.
But the academy crew spun its fortunes around with a stellar comeback against Londonderry in Beeman Trophy play, with the Lady Astros rebounding from a 7-3 halftime hole – which became an 8-3 deficit early in the second half – by outscoring its host by an 8-2 tally during the final 22 minutes of the match.
“After a rough week, the girls pulled together one of our best comebacks in my coaching history at Pinkerton,” said Daziel. “At one point, we had three freshmen on the field, including one in Jordan Vaillancourt, who we pulled up from the junior varsity just yesterday due to injured players. We had players playing through some aches and pains too, and we were down one of our top players due to injury since the Bedford game. The girls got on a roll and scored four unanswered goals, and at that point I could just see in their demeanor we were going to take this game.”
The victorious PA crew received a six-point game from Ali Davis (four goals, two assists), three goals from Dani Tompkins, two goals and a helper from Madison Peredna, a goal and an assist apiece from Ariel Vaillancourt and Nola Wesche, and an assist from Kiley Davis.
Astro goalie Goucher contributed seven saves to the victory.
Danielle Tompkins tries to put one past the Lancer goalie during Saturday’s win. Photo by Chris Paul
