The Verona High School Girls lacrosse team outlasted a scrappy Lakeland team, staying just ahead of Lakeland throughout the contest to hold onto a 9-8 win in Wanaque this past Saturday morning.
The Lady Hillbillies struggled with an uncharacteristic number of miscues early in the game that prevented them from expanding their lead in the first half and allowed Lakeland to tie the game at halftime, 4-4, before making enough plays on both ends of the field in the second half to stay just ahead of Lakeland when the final buzzer sounded.
Sophomore Maggie Lonsinger, who has the talent to be the next in a long line of players from Verona’s highly successful girls lacrosse program to play at the Division One level in college, powered the Lady Hillbillies to a win, scoring an impressive, game-high five goals.
Maggie Lonsinger scored five times as @veronaglax beat Lakeland 9-8 on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/72GWMSnAB5
— MyVeronaNJ (@myveronanj) April 2, 2018
Senior CC Courter continued her solid play in the midfield, recording two goals, four draw controls and a key defensive play in the first half, intercepting a Lakeland pass in the Verona defensive end and quickly finding junior Sarah Carlucci with a long transition pass that launched her upfield on a long run that resulted in a beautiful top corner blast that dented the back of the net for the junior’s first score of the young season.
Junior midfielder Ally Madigan made contributions throughout the game with long transition runs, several draw controls and two assists, while sophomore defender Clara Frizzi was a standout on defense, corralling multiple ground balls and sparking several transition runs into the Lakeland end of the field.
Senior Ashley Nigro’s lone goal of the game came at a key juncture late in the second half to put Verona up 8-7 with around six minutes left in the game.
Goalie Skyler Freedman had another double-digit saves day with 11 to improve Verona’s record to 2-0 in the young season.
For their next game, the Lady Hillbillies go on the road for the third consecutive time to face Roxbury on Wednesday, April 4, at 4 p.m.
