On Feb. 25, a Saturday afternoon, the Maclay girls varsity lacrosse team faced off against Pensacola Catholic. Earlier on Saturday, Maclay had already completed one game and came out with a win against Navarre. Along with the doubleheader, Maclay also had a game on Friday but lost against Santa Rosa High School. With three games in two days, exhaustion played an important role in the Marauder’s performance.
The game started at 5:00 p.m. It wasn’t long until Pensacola Catholic found the back of the Marauder net. Within minutes the Crusaders were already winning by seven and didn’t give up a goal until senior Grace Reichelderfer was able to penetrate the defense for a score.
“We were really tired but we still played our best,” junior Mary Katherine Brady said. “You could really see how tired we were after the game earlier in the day.”
The first 25 minute half ended with a score of 15-1 after the Crusaders added a couple more goals before the halftime horn.
Within four minutes of the second half, the Crusaders got past the tired Marauder defense four times for four goals. Down 18 points, Reicheldefer found the Crusader net two more times within minutes of each other.
“I think the exhaustion really got to us in the second half,” sophomore Sophia Kim said. “We were trying our best to keep up with a really good team and they were a whole lot fresher than we were.”
The Marauder defense couldn’t get a stop and the offense would not make another shot on the goal for the rest of the game. The Crusader defense was able to keep finding holes in the Marauder defense and scored four more goals by the end of the game making the final score 22-3.
“We played a really good team tonight, probably one of the best we will play,” head coach Sara VanTassel said. “We just have to tighten up on defense and execute more shots to get better.”
The Marauders went 1-2 on the weekend as a whole with one loss on Friday, and a win loss split on Saturday. The Marauders now sit at a record of 1-3 and will move on to face Santa Fe on Tuesday, Feb. 28.
“I think that we have improvements to make but we are getting better and that’s all that matters,” said VanTassel.
