Trojans push past Blazers

BLAZER STADIUM, APRIL 25—

The Blair girls' lacrosse team (2-5) took on the Gaithersburg Trojans in a well-fought but disappointing game that ended in the Blazers' sixth straight loss. The Blazers began the game with a solid defense, carefully protecting the goal. However, the girls had trouble bringing the ball downfield, and a powerful Gaithersburg offense scored their first goal after only three minutes.

Blair answered Gaithersburg four minutes later when a breakaway by senior Elena Talbott resulted in a missed shot that was recovered and shot again successfully by junior Rachita Sood, tying the game at one goal a-piece. A quick response by Gaithersburg, followed by another impressive play by Talbott, who again brought the ball downfield — this time for a goal, kept the game tied. Another goal by Talbott soon gave the Blazers the lead, 3-2.

Midway through the first half, the Blazers began to stumble, and gave up three consecutive goals before sophomore Susie Branson renewed Blair's offensive push with two goals in quick succession. Senior captain Dana Ballard followed Branson with another goal for Blair, again giving Blair the lead with the score at 6-5. With Ballard in the lead, Blair's offense continued a relentless offensive push, and with great teamwork Ballard scored twice more, making the score 8-5 with eight minutes left in the first half.

With little time remaining in the half, Gaithersburg managed to rebound with three quick goals, and the teams entered halftime tied at 8-8. Although the Blazers had faltered near the end of the half, the team displayed a marked improvement over their past few performances, with a much stronger defense and a very promising offense.

As soon as the second half began, the Trojans took off, pounding the Blazers with renewed energy and scoring seven unanswered goals in the first 10 minutes of play. The Blazers' grounding and passing was much sloppier than in the first half. Finally, 12 minutes into the second half, Talbott scored off a pass from Ballard, quickly followed by a second goal by senior captain Devon Madison, again off an assist from Ballard.

With the score 10-15, the Blazers' offense was finally on point again, with lots of shots, good rebounding and possession control. Ballard and Talbott each scored one more goal before Gaithersburg's offense scored twice, making the score 12-17 Gaithersburg with 2:30 left in the second half.

Although the Blazers continued to play hard up to the buzzer, with Talbott scoring one more on a breakaway, the team could not make up for their poor performance at the beginning of the second half.

Overall, sophomore goalie Katelyn Luker played exceptionally well, with 17 saves, and Blair's offense was markedly improved, with Sood, Ballard, Branson, Madison and Talbott all scoring — Ballard with four goals and Talbott with five.

Although the Blazers lost the match, coach Katherine Ingraham was pleased with the team's better performance compared to previous games. "Every single thing we focused on in practice, we did," she said, noting that Madison and Talbott did an outstanding job of playing the entire field. "We have to work on not getting ourselves into that hole," she added.