By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
SPRINGFIELD – The Effingham County girls lacrosse team absorbed the first strike but followed with a knockout blow of seven goals in a 4 ½-minute span to defeat South Effingham 20-10 on Thursday night at Rebel Field.
Midfielder Olivia Morgan tied her career-high with seven goals and her softball teammates Gracie LaFleur and Megan Coleman added seven and four goals respectively as the Rebels netted their season-high, single-game scoring effort.
ECHS (5-3, 1-1 Division 2A, Area 4) won its third straight game this season and fifth straight against the Mustangs during the last three years.
It’s been a nice turnaround for the Rebels, who lost three of their first five games by 10 or more goals this season.
Suddenly, ECHS has the same record after eight games that it had last season when the Rebels won a school-record 11 games.
“We have kind of a split team – half are returners and half are newcomers – and we’ve played some hard teams,” ECHS coach Alison Lawson said. “Those were hard games to begin with, but going into those games with a team that had only been playing together for weeks, I can’t say a win was expected.”
SEHS (3-2, 2-2) looked to change the narrative against its rival when Abbey Jordan scored just 75 seconds into the game.
Winning faceoffs led to ECHS midfielders making bee-lines to the South goal.
“You usually win the game if you win the faceoffs,” Lawson said. “Our midfielders (Morgan, Coleman and Deloach – combining for 12 goals and 14 assists) were playing well together and I didn’t see a point in time to take them off the field.”
Midway through the second quarter, ECHS built the lead to 11-2.
The Mustangs fought back with four straight goals and had a 12-10 advantage in shots during the second and third quarters.
Jordan’s sixth goal of the game pulled South within five, 13-8, with 10:21 to go, but the Rebels unleashed another scoring flurry – five straight goals (four in less than two minutes) to pull away.
Freshman Sydney Minshall had two goals and Morgan Hetzel and Aerial Evans added one apiece for SEHS.
LaFleur, a junior attacker playing lacrosse for the first time, had three straight goals for ECHS after the Mustangs drew close in the second half.
LaFleur has 20 goals this season, three shy of Coleman’s team-leading 23.
“We have to depend on everyone and that’s made this season a challenge because we’re so split on (returners and newcomers),” Lawson said. “It’s hard to get (all) the newcomers up to speed with the returners, but we’ll get there.”
The Rebels and Mustangs will meet again on April 9 in Guyton.
