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The first couple of weeks of the Winchester High girls lacrosse season couldn’t have gone any better for the team’s head coach Suzanne Ontso. The Red & Black (6-1) are just cruising through the schedule with wins over Tewksbury (15-1, March 30), Wilmington (17-5, April 1), Billerica (15-14, April 4), Arlington (15-6, April 7), Stoneham (15-7, April 9) and Woburn (13-6, April 13). Ironically, their lone loss – a high scoring game at that – occurred just a couple of days ago against visiting Melrose on April 15, 22-21.
There’s no doubt that they know how to put the ball in the net. It all adds up to 112 goals in seven games.
In the third game of the year, the Winchester girls went up against a tough, physical Billerica team out of the Merrimack Valley Conference.
“It was a back-and-forth game,” said Ontso. “We made some adjustments on defense after the first quarter (to slow down the pace).”
Winchester trailed after one, 4-2, but led at halftime, 9-8. The visitors maintained the lead at the end of three quarters, 12-11. Both teams then scored three apiece in the final period, and as a result the Red & Black were able to hold on to the slim lead to win the game.
Millie McDonald came through with two early goals for Winchester, before Billerica scored the next four to take the lead. Ava O’Gorman and Reese Bottari tied it up in the second with goals of their own. During that comeback effort, Ontso praised her midfielders.
“They did a great job on draw controls,” she said.
Madelyn Rabinovich scored with 7:49 left in the game from Bottari to break a 13-13 tie, and then McDonald scored the game-winner two minutes later.
“Sloane McCarthy and Stella DeChristoforo both came up with big interceptions to keep the ball in the Billerica defensive box late in the game to maintain pressure,” said Ontso. “Billerica was called for a major foul with 2:49 left, but we turned it over with a minute to go. They ended up scoring with 25-seconds to go to cut our lead to one, 15-14. We then fouled with seven seconds left on the clock, which gave Billerica one final chance to tie up the game, but Nelli Murphy was able to make her fifth save of the game to prevent overtime.”
Ontso was thrilled that her girls were able to persevere in this type of game.
“It feels great to come out on the winning side in such a tight game early on in the season,” she said. “These are the types of games that show what we need to work on, while also getting rewarded (with the win).”
After taking down Arlington, the Red & Black traveled to Stoneham to beat up on the Spartans with another double-digit win.
Ontso summed up the Stoneham game in terms of more depth.
“We definitely had more players on the bench, and we used it to our advantage,” she said.
Winchester jumped out to a 4-0 lead with just six minutes gone in the opening stanza. Ava O’Gorman, Annie Harstad, Bottari and McDonald accounted for the scores. The goal by Harstad was her first on the varsity level. The visitors went on to score four more times in the first half to lead at halftime, 8-1.
“Center draws were hard fought throughout this game, with Stoneham’s Theresa Marshall winning four of them that resulted in five goals,” said Ontso.
Bottari led her teammates in draw controls with five. Lauren Corr and McDonald each had two, and Rabinovich picked up one. McCarthy was credited with three caused turnovers on defense. O’Gorman led all scorers with six goals.
After the game, Ontso, who’s thrilled that the team is finally at full strength, praised the efforts of Sarah Adams and Caroline McInnis.
“They have become a strong combination around the crease,” the coach said of the dynamic duo. “The attack is also looking more comfortable.”
Murphy was solid once again in net, coming up with seven saves against the Spartans.
The Winchester girls then made it six in a row with the win over Woburn.
“This was a great game from start to finish,” said Ontso. “We were up 10-0 at the half.”
As usual, Murphy was outstanding in goal. Her 19 saves really kept Woburn from sustaining any momentum. The team itself won 10 draws, led by Corr with three.
As a whole, the defense played well, creating 15 caused turnovers. Lila Griffin collected five groundballs to go along with several key slides that caused two of the turnovers.
“We (received) two second half yellow cards, which is not ideal,” said Ontso. “It’s something that we need to do a better job of avoiding, but I know it comes from playing hard, but being a man down is not where we want to be. The defense, however, held Woburn scoreless each time.”
Specifically, Harstad was credited with three groundballs, while McDonald produced seven caused turnovers to go along with two more from Celia Nagtegaal.
McDonald and O'Gorman paced the offensive attack with five goals apiece. Sarah Adams scored twice, and Siobhan Sullivan once to complete the scoring in this game.
But the winning streak came to an end in that wild game against Melrose.
“This was a crazy high scoring game,” said Ontso. “We came out strong to go up 4-3 at the end of the first quarter, but we came out flat in the second, and as a result Melrose went on a 6-1 run to tie up the game at halftime, 9-9. Melrose was successful on the fast break throughout the entire game. They took a 17-13 lead with one minute to go in the third quarter, and were up 21-16 with 8:26 left in the fourth. But then, we scored four goals in five minutes to trim the deficit considerably.”
Bottari, O’Gorman and two from McDonald changed the momentum around. Both sides then traded goals that maintained Melrose’s slim lead.
“We won a late draw, but turned it over in the last minute that ended our chances to tie the game,” said Ontso. “It was a disappointing finish, because I know we can do better, and that starts with draws and taking better care of the ball. We just didn’t match Melrose’s energy in the second and third quarters, and it cost us. But the girls still fought back, and I’m proud of that effort, and they should be too. This game showed us what we need to focus on in order to make us better.”
McDonald powered the Winchester attack with 11 goals.
The Winchester girls were scheduled to go up against non-league host Weston on April 17, before playing two games over spring school vacation week against North Andover (April 21, 11 a.m.) and Wayland (April 25, 10 a.m.). Both of these games are also road encounters.
Joe McConnell is a longtime, award-winning sports editor for numerous North Shore publications. He began covering Winchester sports for the News in November 2024 and is currently its Sports Editor. He can be reached at editor@winchesternews.org.
