Foxborough holds off late North Attleboro Rally, 14-13

Prior to the start of Wednesday’s Hockomock clash between Foxborough and North Attleboro, the referees assured each squad that the game would be played, rain or shine. Well, it rained, quite heavily at times, but that didn’t stop the Warriors from scooping up 52 ground balls, firing 32 shots and scoring 14 goals en route to 14-13 victory.

“I probably told them 100 times, ground balls, ground balls, ground balls [and] it finally clicked,” said Foxborough head coach Jess Cercone. “I think we had just about every ground ball [this afternoon], which was huge.”

The battle of ground balls began right after the opening draw, as the Red Rocketeers scooped up their first of 35 and scored 21-seconds later when Lucy Nolan recorded North Attleboro’s first points of the game.

Foxborough’s offense would then come alive nearly a minute later, as Hannah Walsh scored her first of four goals, which helped jumpstart the Warriors offense. Ellen Decker and Abby Tepper added a few more points to the scoreboard after Walsh’s quick strike. North Attleboro’s offense eventually responded and recorded a handful of goals before halftime.

Yet, trailing 10-6 at intermission, North Attleboro’s head coach, Karen Folan, told her team that they weren’t playing their best lacrosse and needed to ratchet up their attack during the final 25-minutes.

“[I said] they needed to turn it on,” Folan explained after the game. “[They’re] a better team than they were [exhibiting].”

So, despite allowing the Warriors to dictate a majority of the second half, the Red Rocketeers attempted a triumphant comeback during the final six minutes when Nolan, Briana Doherty and Ashleigh Chretien recorded four more goals to make it 14-13.

However, North Attleboro’s rally came to an end very quickly, as the Warriors scooped up their final ground ball off the face-off and ran out the clock by passing the ball around in the Red Rocketeers zone.

“Ground balls killed us today,” Folan said. “They wanted it more on the ground balls [and] we just didn’t fight for it, they wanted it more.”   

Yet, besides winning the ground balls, Foxborough’s goaltender Meghan Fay played terrifically, as she saved 11-of-24 shots between the pipes.

“Fay did an awesome job of keeping her head, staying in the game, being comfortable in net and she came up with some huge stops.” 

Foxborough will return to action on Friday when they host Sharron, while North Attleboro will look to earn their seventh win of the season at King Phillip High School.

“We have some games coming up where we’ve already beat the team once, so I think we can [finish the season] 9-9,” North Attleboro head coach Karen Folan said.