West Morris pulls out victory over Mount Olive

CHESTER – The West Morris girls lacrosse team rallied to score three goals in the final six minutes Tuesday to pull out a 12-9 victory over Mount Olive.

Mount Olive junior midfielder Sarah McEvoy scored with 7:42 remaining in the game to cap a three-goal comeback that tied the game 9-9. Less than two minutes later sophomore attack Cassidy Orban scored her fourth goal of the game on an assist from senior midfielder Sarah Frankovic to put West Morris (3-4) ahead 10-9.

Frankovic scored 53 seconds later for an 11-9 Wolfpack lead, and senior midfielder Mackenzie Metzler scored her fifth of the contest with 3:04 remaining to cap the win for West Morris, 12-9, and hand Mount Olive (5-1) its first loss of the season.

“I wouldn’t say second half team, that’s what a lot of people label us as, we usually always come back on fire, but this game I think that’s how we should have been playing the whole game,” Orban said of the Wolfpack’s rally. “We just came back, played our game, it’s not like we had a miracle, that’s just how we play and I think we just pulled through at the end.”

West Morris led 2-0 with 11:17 left in the first half on goals from senior midfielder Jillian Picciuto and Metzler. Mount Olive answered with back-to-back goals from McEvoy and freshman midfielder Amber Gonzalez to tie the game 2-2 with 2:55 to go. McEvoy struck again with under two minutes to play to put the Marauders ahead 3-2, but in the final 49 seconds Metzler scored twice to put West Morris ahead 4-3 at halftime.

“We knew that they were going to come out really, really strong, it’s tough to come and compete in a different league, but we know they wanted it really badly so that made us want it even more,” Metzler said. “They came out strong and that rattled us a little, but we were able to get our team together and really hone in on a team win together.”

Orban and Picciuto scored in the first five minutes of the second half to put West Morris ahead 6-3, but McEvoy scored her third of the afternoon with 18:50 left to pull Mount Olive to within 6-4. The Marauders and West Morris traded goals in a seven-minute span and Metzler’s fourth of the day put the Wolfpack ahead 9-6 with 10:55 remaining.

With 9:09 to play freshman midfielder Gina Verrone scored with a man advantage to pull Mount Olive to within 9-7, then scored again 26 seconds later for a one-goal game at 9-8.

West Morris won 14-of-23 draw controls with Frankovic in the circle for nine of those wins. McEvoy won nine draw controls for the Marauders.

“The draw controls are extremely important because if you win the draw control you can pretty much determine the momentum of the game,” Frankovic said. “You push your team or slow it down, if you win the draw control, to us, you’re going to win the game.”

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: 973-428-6674; lknego@gannettnj.com

GOALS: (WM) Metzler 5, Orban 4, Picciuto 2, Frankovic; (MO) McEvoy 4, Verrone 2, Gonzalez, Callaghan, Murray; ASSISTS: (WM) Frankovic 3, Orban 2; (MO) Verrone 2; SAVES: (WM) Gonzalez 9; (MO) Kovats 2.