Despite giving up the opening goal to start the game and finding themselves down early, the Brighton Bengals proved to be too much for the Alta Hawks, overpowering their way to a 19-5 victory in the quarterfinals of the Division A girls lacrosse tournament Friday.
After giving up an early goal to Alta’s Jessica Law, Brighton’s offense quickly sprang into action, scoring four goals in a matter of minutes. The offensive onslaught would continue for the rest of the half, with Brighton adding 10 more goals during the period to take a 14-4 lead into the second half.
Led by captains Haley Taylor and Grace Rappl, Brighton seems to be hitting their stride at the most crucial part of their season.
“I’m so proud of our girls and they really showed up. We have been working really hard on draw controls as well as defense and feel that we dominated both of those areas. I think we played together as a team more today than we ever have this season. I really feel like we’re peaking at the right time,” said Brighton head coach Melissa Nash.
Both Taylor and Rappl showed themselves to be proven leaders on the field, helping to keep Brighton’s offense pushing into the attack and defending as a team when needed. Taylor and Rappl had six and five goals, respectively, to help lead their team to victory.
“Haley Taylor is the best lacrosse player in the state, I’m sure of it. She won the Brighton female athlete of the year award last night, she’s headed to Oregon, she’s gotten all academic and she’s a national merit scholar,” Nash said. “Haley is just the best player and student we could ever have. She is also a great leader, not just on the field but off the field as well.”
“I think we were all really cohesive and creative. The coaches gave us the liberty to do whatever we wanted to do out there and we were really successful.” — Brighton’s Haley Taylor
Taylor felt that the team was in synch for the majority of the night and was really appreciative of the creativity that her coaches allowed them to show.
“I think we were all really cohesive and creative. The coaches gave us the liberty to do whatever we wanted to do out there and we were really successful,” said Taylor.
Having a double-digit lead to start the second half allowed the Bengals to relax some and focus on possession and make sure not give the Hawks any hope of getting back in the game.
“Our game plan coming in was locking up their number 1, who is their top scorer. We locked her off with a rookie who has never played lacrosse before and she killed (it). The other part of the game was just to score more goals than them and we were able to do that,” added Nash.
When tested, Brighton goalie Sarah Hart looked to be up for the challenge, making six saves on the night. Alta goalie Savanna Burnett had five saves for the game.