Fort Mill edges Chapin to stay undefeated

In one of their most competitive games of the season so far, the Fort Mill High Yellow Jackets lacrosse team edged Chapin 10-9 to improve to 4-0 on the season.

The second half of the game turned into a back-and-forth battle between the two teams as neither team seem to be able to get a clear advantage over the other one.

It wasn’t until Charlotte Anderson scored the game-winning goal for Fort Mill with 61 seconds left, that Fort Mill was able to keep an advantage.

“I am really proud of how they remained composed,” said Fort Mill head coach Kellianne Wunk. “We have used the last couple of games to build on things. They are taking the little things and building on them. They are extremely coachable.”

It looked like Fort Mill was going to run away with things by taking a 3-0 lead just under five minutes into the game. The Jackets’ Makenna Apolloni scored the opening goal for Fort Mill. That opened a small crack into the Chapin defense, the Jackets won the next face-off and scored nine seconds later on Wallace Cortazar’s first goal of the game. Fort Mill scored a little over 20 seconds later as Amanda Lathan added to the lead, making it 3-0.

However, Chapin finally was able to put its offense together and rattled off four unanswered goals to take a 4-3 lead with about 10 minutes left in the first half. The teams traded the lead or tied things up three more times in the first half and entered the break in a 6-6 tie.

Turning point

Back-to-back goals in the second half by Cortazar gave Fort Mill a two-goal lead at 9-7, the Jackets’ largest in the second half, which helped to create some space for Fort Mill. Chapin would rally to tie the game at 9-9, but Fort Mill was able to hold them at bay most of the second half.

Critical

Critical play from Anderson and Cortazar in the second half led Fort Mill. The two players combined to score all four goals for the Jackets in the second half, with each of them getting two goals.

Star contributions

Cortazar ended the game with five goals and Anderson had three goals for Fort Mill as the two led the way for the Jackets.

On deck

Fort Mill plays rival Nation Ford on the road this week as well as heading to Ardrey Kell to play its first North Carolina-based team this season. The Jackets play at home again March 27 against Clover, whom they already beaten once so far this season.

This story was originally published March 20, 2017 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Fort Mill edges Chapin to stay undefeated."