It had been about two years since Franklin knocked Waukesha out of the state tournament on a free-position goal in overtime.
On Wednesday night, Waukesha returned the favor.
After the Waukesha defense and senior goaltender Becca McDaniel fended off countless shots from the Sabers in the final minutes of regulation, sophomore Ariana Hinton extended the Lady Nighthawks winning streak to seven games with a free-position goal in overtime to give Waukesha a 5-4 victory at Franklin in the Cool Stick Game of the Week.
“They knocked us out of the playoffs a few years ago in a similar situation in overtime, so it’s kind of sweet justice from our standpoint,” Waukesha coach Bill Paquin said. “It’s nice when you beat a quality opponent because those are the games you could really build upon. And now you feel like you belong.”
Early on, it looked like surging Waukesha (9-1) would prove too much for Franklin (5-4), who is in the midst of a youth movement. Sophomore Lauryn Lopez put the Lady Nighthawks on the board just five seconds into the game. She finished the game with two goals for Waukesha.
“She has a very bright future ahead of her as a sophomore,” Paquin said. “The biggest difference in her game from a freshman to now is, you’re seeing some of the lax IQ — she knows where to be, when to cut, those types of things.”
Franklin responded with a run of three unanswered goals, including two by junior Lauren Schwartz. The Sabers took a 3-2 lead into halftime, but Waukesha bounced back with goals from Lopez and junior Libby Abts to take their first lead of the game with 15 minutes, 14 seconds left in the second half.
It looked as if the Waukesha defense would pitch a shutout the rest of the way until junior Jillian Krueger deposited a goal with 1:55 left in regulation, tying the game at 4. The Sabers had plenty of opportunities to score again in those final minutes, but the defense – led by senior Kaylee Keller – plus superb goaltending by McDaniel sent the game into sudden victory.
“My defense did a really good job of getting their sticks in there and tipped some balls away, and I was just getting balls out of the way,” McDaniel said. “We really wanted to put our energy out there and get a good win to keep our winning streak going so we could go into these tougher games energized and ready to go.”
Franklin dropped its fourth straight game during a brutal stretch that had the Sabers playing back-to-back games two weeks in a row against four of the top teams in Wisconsin (University School of Milwaukee, Whitefish Bay/Nicolet/Shorewood, Arrowhead and Waukesha).
“Every team wants to win every game, but ultimately, we grew today with our first overtime game for our younger players on the field,” said Jules Shearer, Franklin’s new head coach who took over for Jill Kyhn. “We have a really young team, and I thought it was exciting that we kept the score close.”
Franklin resumes conference play on Wednesday with a home game against Cedarburg. Waukesha heads to Middleton Monday night for a non-conference match.
Every week, WisconsinLacrosse.com will highlight a select girls lacrosse game in Wisconsin. Made possible by a donation from CoolStick.
