Notre Dame Prep’s Paige Kawa took every draw and won the vast majority of them Wednesday against Mount de Sales, but it was her goal with seven seconds left in the third period that broke a tie and helped propel the visiting Blazers to an 11-9 victory.
Kawa scored the goal off a feed from Lily Peck to break an 8-all deadlock and senior Caroline Bowers scored the first two tallies for the Blazers (3-3, 2-1) in the fourth quarter.
Bowers led the Blazers with five goals and Peck had three.
“Today we kind of came off the bus with bad weather and not the best mentality going into it,” said Bowers who also scored the first goal of the game, “but toward the end we knew we needed to get some separation in that score. So we really turned it on and our starting line really worked together to try to bring up that score.”
But the Denver commit knew she wouldn’t have as many opportunities if it wasn’t for Kawa, who won eight of 10 draws in the first half and 17 of 24 in the game.
“Paige is great at draw control and me and Lilly Peck are on the circle there to support her. Whenever the ball falls on the floor it’s ours automatically,” Bowers said. “That’s something we really work on in practice, so that’s why we were successful on it.”
“I think they beat us big time on ground balls, even though it wasn’t directly to their girl they were all over the field,” Mount de Sales coach Amy Donahue said.
Despite the time of possession difference and lack of depth in the midfield, the Sailors (2-5, 0-5) stayed close through three quarters.
After sophomore Kate Bowers scored with 70 seconds left in the first quarter, the Blazers led 3-1. But two goals by Mackenzie Conley sandwiched around a MaryCate Rehkemper tally pushed the Sailors ahead, 4-3, with 3:43 left in the first half.
Conley, a senior who will play in college at Notre Dame next season, led the Sailors with four goals and one assist.
Caroline Bowers tied the score off an assist from Reagan Riemer with 33 seconds left until intermission. Peck and Bowers scored early in the third with Bowers’ tally coming off an assist from her sister.
“We’ve both scored in a game, but never an assist so that was exciting,” Bowers said. “It’s nice to finally have her out there with me.”
Notre Dame Prep coach Mac Ford is just happy to have Caroline around for her final season.
“She has gotten better and better every year,” he said. “If all my girls could say that we’d be terrific, but she is a terrific player. I’m so proud of her, she puts in a lot of effort, going to Denver next year and I see her playing a big role there early on.”
The Sailors battled back to tie at 6 on a Peck goal off a feed from Conley, and the team’s traded goals until Conley assisted Ella Powers tying the score at 8 before Kawa’s go-ahead tally.
The Sailors’ only goal in the final quarter came from Conley with 44 seconds left.
“We just didn’t shoot well,” Donahue said. “We did in the first half, we had multiple shots on the cage, but we knew they were going to play kind of a backer, zone defense, so if we don’t get a quick hard shot off immediately their sticks are all over it.”
The Sailors did get solid defensive games from Becca Sabatelli (four caused turnovers, five ground balls), Charlee Thomas and Caroline Spears (four ground balls), but it was the Blazers defense that shone in the final 12 minutes.
“Going into it we knew [Conley] and [Rehkemper] were the main people to focus on, but our defense is kind of like a unit, so we are always checking in and out of the middle,” Bowers said. “So that’s what you see us doing running in and out and then always passing off cutters to other zones.”
That defense was led by Ella Cox, Elspetch Skepton and Regan Forsythe.
“We switched up our defense and we really went after them in the fourth quarter,” Ford said. “We responded, caused some good turnovers, got the ball and the girls got the ball in the net.”
Notre Dame Prep — 3 1 5 2 — 11
Mound de Sales — 1 3 4 1 – 9
Goals: NDP — Caroline Bowers 5, Lily Peck 3, Paige Kawa 1, Kate Bowers 1, Ava Larkin 1; MDS — Mackenzie Conley 4, MaryCate Rehkemper 2, Ella Powers 2, Maddie Sabatelli 1. Assists: NDP— Kate Bowers 2 Morgan Baird 1, Reagan Riemer 1: MDS — Mackenzie Conley 1, MaryCate Rehkemper 1, Grace Herman; Saves: NDP — Emma Martin 9; MDS — Ella Powers 7.
