Women's Lacrosse: Trinity triumphs over Bates

Bates’ Teal Otley, left, passes to a teammate cutting across the middle while be defended by Trinity’s Clara Nowlan as goalie Zoe Ferguson looks on during Saturday’s game in Lewiston.

LEWISTON — The Bates women’s lacrosse team had its shot at knocking off the No. 2 ranked team in the nation, but the Bobcats missed on that opportunity.

The host Bobcats squandered some early scoring chances before Trinity took control and pulled away for a 9-5 victory in a NESCAC contest at Garcelon Field on Saturday.

“When you’re in a close game, and you know you’re playing against a competitive game, taking advantage of opportunities early is usually going to be a good thing,” Bates coach Brett Allen said. “And if you don’t, then sometimes things start to swing the other way, and that definitely happened.”

Allie Barrett gave the Bantams (5-1, 3-0) a 1-0 lead just 70 seconds into the contest, but Allison Dewey answered for Bates (3-3, 0-3) just 16 seconds later.

The Bobcats then controlled play for the next eight minutes, but couldn’t take advantage of their opportunities against Trinity junior goalie Zoe Ferguson.

“Their goalie is definitely a very good goalie,” Allen said. “We spent a lot of time preparing to fake high, shoot low; it’s one of the things we talked about a lot. We had some great opportunities in the first half, and she made some nice saves against us. I think we would have tried to be a little more accurate with our shot placement, for sure, and maybe try to do some of the things that we were talking about a little bit better.”

The Bantams weathered the storm and scored the next goal at the 9:30 mark of the first half, with Cape Elizabeth, Maine native Abby McInerney putting Trinity on top for good. Another Mainer, Yarmouth’s Grace O’Donnell, scored on a feed from Barrett five minutes later to make it 3-1.

Bates’ own Mainer, Cumberland native Teal Otley, cut the deficit in half less than three minutes later.

“That was kind of a momentum-builder,” Otley said. “We kind of felt the fire under our feet, and we had chances, we had opportunities, it’s just finishing on them.”

Ferguson made a point-blank save on Issy Hnat that would have tied the game, and the Bantams made the Bobcats pay at the other end of the field, with Barrett finishing against Bates goalie Eliza Statile.

Kiley Coffey scored a man-up goal 42 seconds later, then added another with four minutes left in the first half to send the Bantams into the intermission up 6-2.

“I don’t really look at the scoreboard too much, other than to see how much time is left, and I felt like we were winning,” Allen said. “I knew we weren’t, but the first half it definitely felt like we were the better team. I wouldn’t say the better team, but we were controlling the pace of the play. And for whatever reason we just couldn’t find a way to get the ball past the goalie.”

The Bobcats solved Ferguson twice in the first five minutes of the second half, getting goals from Camille Belletete and Otley 27 seconds apart to cut the deficit to 6-4.

“We felt in control, and like we had our game, and then we just kind of got away from it a little bit, and that’s what really killed us,” Otley said.

“I think part of sport is trying not to get too high or too low after good things or bad things happen,” Allen said. “I think it’s human nature to just relax a little bit after something goes well in your favor.”

Bates once again couldn’t build on its momentum. The Bobcats took a penalty seven minutes into the half, then Trinity scored a man-up goal less than 40 seconds later, with Nicole Stauffer grabbing momentum back for the Bantams. O’Donnell added to the lead just 22 seconds after that.

Stauffer scored a second goal midway through the half, and Otley completed a hat trick on a free-possession shot with 14 seconds left to round out the scoring.

The Bobcats finished the game with a 16-13 advantage in shots on goal, but couldn’t use that edge to their benefit.

“I just think we knew we had to be sharp, and we weren’t as sharp as we could have been,” Allen said.

Bates was hoping to knock off a second-ranked Trinity team for the second time in four years, but couldn’t pull off the upset with a second chance at the opportunity.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

Bates’ Sydney Cowles, right, knocks the ball away from Trinity’s Clara Nowlan during the first half of Saturday’s game at Bates.

Trinity’s Abby McInerney, left, knocks the ball free from the stick of Bates’ Anika Becker during the first half of Saturday’s lacrosse game in Lewiston.

Camille Belletete of Bates College finds an open lane and heads to the net for a shot as Trinity’s Karly Simpson, left, and Allie Barrett close in on her during Saturday afternoon’s game at Bates.