The State High girls’ varsity lacrosse team fell 10-11 to Hershey in an intense, fast paced game that was fought until the last second. Immediately following, the junior-varsity team won 9-7 against Hershey.

On Tuesday, April 11th, the girls lacrosse team boarded a Fullington eager to get on the road and take on Hershey. The Hershey high school lacrosse program has always been a strong one so the girls brought their all. “I’ve heard Hershey is a good team but I think we can pull out the win,” said freshman defender, Rylie Gregg before the game. In 2015, State High played Hershey in late March and lost 8-9 but they were hopeful about the rematch the next year.

In the start of the varsity game, Hershey scored the first four goals and then it was State Colleges turn. State High and Hershey took turns racking up goals until it came to half and they were tied 7-7 after coming back from a four point deficit.

The second half was back and forth between leaders in score. State High took control and claimed the first two goals of the half making the score 9-7. After that, Hershey tied it up again and brought it back to 9-9. Until the last few minutes of the game, the score was 10-10 and with less than a minute to go, shooting-space was called on State High and Hershey got a free position to make the final score 10-11.

Sophomore midfielder Sally Stahl and senior midfielder Brielle Curtis led the varsity team in goals; Stahl with five and Curtis with two. Senior midfielder Sophie Brandimarte, freshman attacker Emily Hall and sophomore midfielder/attacker Elaina Ohlson each added one point. Varsity goalies freshman Caroline Kranich saved three goals in the first half and sophomore Kate Thomas also saved three. “They were a good team… It was not an easy game,” said junior defender, Katherine Groves. “I think we played well… it wasn’t just the end of the game, it was the whole game just focusing on double teams and pressuring the ball and knowing what situation we’re in and how to handle that,” said Hall.

The JV team started out the first half dominating 4-0 and within the last few minutes, Hershey scored three goals to make the score at half 4-3. Players did not stop scoring through the second half bringing the game to a close, State High winning, with a final score of 9-7 as the sidelines cheered until the end of both games.

Goals were scored by junior attacker Sophia Rallis with two, sophomore midfielder/attacker Tyler Hollowell with two, sophomore attacker Sydney Washell with two, freshman midfielder Alison Houtz with two and junior defender Keally Haushalter added one goal. Goalies junior Emily Engle had three saves and senior Jackie Snedden also saved three goals.

On what contributed to the strong play, Gregg said, “ground balls because we’ve been working on that a lot.” Junior defender Adele Arrington added, “I think our control right after the draws, we did really well.” Freshman defender Alina Muroski believes it was, “our fast players and our really good widespread attack.”

The girls’ lacrosse season is only beginning and the team continues to work harder to improve and win more games.