On April 17, the Newton South girls’ lacrosse team defeated Boston Latin 14-13 in triple overtime. The game was close throughout, with both teams battling back and forth. South clawed its way back from being down five goals in the third quarter and tied the game in the final few minutes of play.

Having lost to BLS 15-3 last season, South’s hard work to improve was on full display. The thrilling victory took a full team effort with players trusting one another, cheering each other on and stepping up for one another.

The team had been getting off good shots on net, but just not converting. During a timeout in the third quarter, as BLS began to pull away, head coach Angie Sutherland continued to infuse confidence in her team.

“[What I said was] we can do this, we have to take care of the ball, every single one of you is able to score a goal and we have to keep boosting each other up so that more and more of those situations arise,” she said.

Junior Cecily Farrow, who scored a hat trick, said the team gained momentum as they fought back, which translated to the team playing with a sense of joy on the field.

“As we started getting closer, it got a lot more fun, and when we are having fun, we tend to play our best,” she said.

As South mounted its comeback, the team worked relentlessly as a unit, with players stepping up in big moments throughout. Farrow secured possession for the team by winning many draws down the stretch, and the group made an important defensive stand with goalie and senior captain Lucia Baring-Gould coming up with multiple saves in the final minute.

The group’s teamwork and selflessness shined through in the clutch moments on both offense and defense, as Farrow said BLS’s preference to move the ball around required South to defend together and communicate as a unit.

“Towards the end, we just started understanding what [BLS] was doing and how to work better as a team,” she said. “Also even on offense, we started to work together a lot better. That last goal, we were all able to cut through to give space to Eliza (Franklin).”

As the game stretched into the first period of overtime and then the second, South was able to hold the majority of the possessions, but still neither team was able to convert. That is, until sophomore attacker Franklin put the game away for South. 

“I caught the ball, and I was driving up from below the net. I drove in and the defender stopped me, and what I’ve been working on in practice has been driving and then if I get stopped, pulling back and driving again. So that’s what I did, because it was muscle memory, I guess.”

“So I switched hands and went to my left to get around the defender that way. I don’t really know what was happening in my head, I just sort of saw an opening and decided to take it in my left hand, which obviously isn’t my dominant hand. But I just had the confidence to take it. So I took my shot and it went in, and I was shocked,” Franklin said. “It’s just like nothing that I’ve ever experienced before.”  

Junior Isabella Starkman, who scored two goals, said the team’s victory solidified a belief and confidence in the group and united the team.

“It just really made us believe that we can win in tough situations. Last year, there were so many times where we were in tight games and we’d be ahead and then we’d blow it, so it proved to us that we could not blow it and we could claw our way back.”

“I think it brought us together, closer as a team. I guess people had bought-in in their own little ways, but I think it was a moment of big buy-in,” she said.

Sutherland said she was proud of her team’s performance, as it reflected some of the main concepts the team focused on at practice and the hard work that the group put in to improve. 

“Everyone looked so confident, and the fact that we scored that many goals was a huge accomplishment for us. I felt like I saw our practices come to life, and people grew confidence in driving 1v1 and dodging and having a powerful shot, and everybody was participating in it. And that made me so proud to see,” she said.