Nerinx Hall lacrosse coach Jody Patterson felt a strong sense of dÃ?©jÃ? vu at halftime of the Missouri Scholastic Lacrosse Association championship game Saturday at Lindenwood University.
Although the Markers were tied with Ursuline 4-4 at that point, Patterson did not like the way things were going. She felt like her team was looking at a fourth straight runner-up finish if things did not turn around - fast.
"I was a little disappointed with the way we had played up until that point," Patterson said. "We certainly had not played our best. I got on them a little bit at halftime and told them that they had one half left to go out and win a state championship."
Whatever Patterson said, it appeared to do the trick. No. 1 seed Nerinx Hall outscored third seeded Ursuline 7-4 in the second half en route to an 11-8 triumph. The state title was the first in school history for the Markers (18-4). Ursuline finished the year at 13-4.
For the 10 seniors on the Nerinx Hall team, the win was especially sweet. Co-captains Lauren Boland and Patty Aquino had been around the program for those three second-place runs, including being on the field the last two seasons.
"It's an amazing feeling to finally get to the top," said Aquino, a defender. "We just decided that we had to win it; second place was not going to be good enough."
The Bears did not go away without a fight, though. Ursuline was protecting a 5-4 lead with less than 15 minutes left when Nerinx junior Emily Behr turned the game around.
Behr scored with 14:39 left to tie the game; she then scored again 24 seconds later to give the Markers a lead they would not relinquish.
"When Behr got that second one, I knew we were going to win," Aquino said. "You could feel it on the field."
Patterson said that Behr's goals were the result of some strategizing at the intermission.
"Ursuline has a great goalie and we talked about the need to not just shoot the ball but to fake and try to draw her out," Patterson said. "That helped turn the tide for us."
Behr, a junior, found the back of the net four times. Boland and Troy Cragen both scored twice for the Markers. Laura Hampel, Dory Finney and Emily Anglo also had goals for Nerinx Hall.
Lindsey Brown and Lexi Warner had two goals apiece for Ursuline. Also scoring for the Bears were Anna Maggiorotto, Maria Schweiss, Ally Sykora and Kara Ringkamp.
Aquino said that she was glad that her class was going to go out on top.
"The seniors on the team are really close," she said. "We love hanging out together. We're all going to miss each other, but at least we were able to accomplish this together."
Patterson said that the senior leadership may have made the difference in the crucial second half Saturday.
"A lot of times it's tough to get the seniors to focus during the spring sports," Patterson said. "But the seniors definitely led the way for us. I think the fact that they had been there before helped us. They knew what needed to be done and they were determined to get it done."
