Edward Little’s Piper Norcross (6) finds an opening in the defense to shoot past Bonny Eagle goalie Kaitlyn Michaud during the Scots’ 12-7 win in Auburn on Saturday.

AUBURN — Just as it looked like Edward Little had righted the ship, Bonny Eagle took over and dominated the rest of the game for a 12-7 victory in a non-conference Class A girls’ lacrosse game at Walton Field on Saturday.

The Red Eddies (1-5) cut a first-half deficit to one with the last goal before halftime, then scored the first two goals of the second half to take a 7-6 lead.

The Scots (3-4) tied the game just over a minute later, then soon after went a man-up thanks to an EL yellow card. Keelin Sweeney scored twice with the man-advantage to give the Scots the lead back for good.

Bonny Eagle coach Judy Martin said putting a pair of goals in during the two-minute man-up was a big key to the comeback. It also allowed the Scots to re-focus their offense.

“Patience, good passing, I think patience is a lot of it,” Martin said. “In the first part of the game, I think we were making passes to cutters that were not really open, and making not really good catchable passes. I think we cleaned that up in the second half, and that really helped a lot.”

The Scots opened the scoring just 34 seconds into the game, when Sweeney fed Alexandra Farley. Piper Norcross responded for EL just after the two-minute mark, but Kaley Rumery and Catherine Biegel both scored for Bonny Eagle, forcing EL coach Jessica Somers to call a timeout with her team down 3-1 just over eight minutes in.

“It was hard to shake the cobwebs off,” Somers said. “We have a large majority of our seniors who went on the senior trip yesterday, so we were a little bit off of our game to start. It was hard to really get into the swing of the day. But once we started to … it was nice to see us start doing some things that we’ve been practicing, and start seeing it transition better into the field.”

Kaylee Jipson and Sweeney traded goals 11 seconds apart just over a minute after the timeout, keeping it a two-goal Scots lead before Norcross and Megan Steele each scored to tie the game 4-4.

Rumery and Biegel both scored again to take the lead back for Bonny Eagle, but Steele scored with just over two minutes left in the half to give the Red Eddies momentum going into halftime.

That momentum ended when Edward Little went a man-down, and the Red Eddies never recovered. They failed to record a shot on goal after Steele and Haley Frohlich notched scores 36 seconds apart early in the second half.

“We had some opportunities that didn’t go our way,” Somers said. “There were some opportunities where if we would have capitalized on, it would have hopefully shifted the game a little bit differently.”

The Bonny Eagle defense did a solid job keeping shots away from goalie Kaitlyn Michaud.

“Just good footwork, good movement,” Martin said. “Everybody played as a team, there was a lot of communication.”

Michaud only had to make two saves to earn the win in net.

At the other end of the field, EL goalie Mariah Vaillancourt did all she could the Red Eddies, stopping 15 of 27 shots on net.

“If she wasn’t making those saves, it would have gone south very quickly, and it would have been a very, very difficult hole to try to come out of,” Somers said, “and I don’t think we would have had that push at the end of the first half if she didn’t keep us in.”

The Red Eddies were done in by turnovers. The Scots scooped up the majority of the ground balls, giving them a possession advantage.

“We were really hustling out there today,” Martin said. “I think we did not get frustrated like they did. Our eyes were up, we’re anticipating a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff coming in the air, we were there ahead of them, just because the anticipation was there, reading what they were going to do, and out-hustling to the ball.”

“We struggled a little bit in transitioning out from our defensive end and losing some balls that if we had been able to keep them going up the field, it would probably would have been a different game,” Somers said.

Edward Little plays again Tuesday, when they host Mt. Ararat, and Somers said her team will use the time between games to work on some areas of weakness.

wkramlich@sunjournal.com

Edward Little goalie Mariah Vaillancourt tracks a shot while teammate Julia Milks looks on during the Red Eddies’ 12-7 loss to Bonny Eagle in Auburn on Saturday.Edward Little’s Piper Norcross (6) keeps pace with Bonny Eagle’s Kaley Rumery during the Scots’ 12-7 win in Auburn on Saturday.Edward Little’s Megan Steele (5) fights for a draw control with Bonny Eagle’s Kaley Rumery while Alexandra Farley (7) looks on during the Scots’ 12-7 win in Auburn on Saturday.Bonny Eagle’s Natalie Bushey (13) and Edward Little’s Piper Norcross collide during the Scots’ 12-7 win in Auburn on Saturday.Edward Little’s Tyme Finnerty, right, tries to get a loose ball before Bonny Eagle’s Keelin Sweeney during the Scots’ 12-7 win in Auburn on Saturday.Edward Little goalie Mariah Vaillancourt reaches out to make a save while Bonny Eagle’s Mollie Ward looks on during the Scots’ 12-7 win in Auburn on Saturday.Edward Little’s Kaylee Jipson goes crashing to the ground while fighting for a loose ball with Bonny Eagle’s Catherine Biegel during the Scots’ 12-7 win in Auburn on Saturday.