WELLESLEY– After the trophies had been given out, senior Maggie Connolly walked briskly to the Sachem sideline and packed her things.
A pair of shoes, a water bottle, her goggles and some miscellaneous items were stuffed into her cinch bag before she got up and stormed off into the Wellesley night with tears streaming down her face.
It wasn’t supposed to end this way.
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Connolly and the Winchester girls lacrosse team were the victim of spectacular goaltending and two questionable late calls causing them to fall to 10-9 in the Eastern Massachusetts Division 2 championship game last night at Babson College.
“I’m obviously disappointed in the outcome,” Winchester Coach Suzanne Ontso said. “I thought the girls had an amazing season. I thought they played their hearts out tonight. ”
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The Sachems had battled back from a three-goal halftime deficit to tie the game with less than five minutes to go and were controlling possession in the waning moments of the game.
The Sachems were called for two sever fouls in the last three minutes that resulted in changes of possession and the loss of a player on the field. This allowed the Warriors to take control of the ball and .
“Bogus,” Ontso said of the two penalty calls. “One of them was not deserved, and you can’t suddenly start making calls when you didn’t make them the whole game.”
The penalties will sting, but the Medfield’s Sarah Honan did the most damage. The Medfield goalkeeper turned aside 10 Sachem shots and kept Winchester off-balance for the majority of the game.
Medfield scored four of the first six goals of the game and stayed calm even as the Sachems put on their second half push.
“I thought Medfield did a great job and played a great game,” Ontso said. “We didn’t capitalize on our chances, and that hurt us big time.”
Connolly had two goals in her final game in the red and black. Juniors Megan Hennessey and Talene Bush each added a pair of goals for Winchester.
Ontso said she was proud of the team, and she was especially proud of her 10 seniors.
“I feel bad for them that they won’t be able to come back and do it again next year,” Ontso said. “They’re a great group. My heart breaks for the senior class; they put everything they had into this year.”
