‘One More’ Dominant Win

‘One More’ Dominant Win Wildcats Overwhelm John Champe In State Quarters

Last season’s Class 4 state quarterfinal win for the Rockbridge County High School girls lacrosse team was all about drama. This year’s game was a display of dominance.

Powered by seven or more points from four different players – including seven goals and five assists for Lola Mulitalo – the Wildcats picked apart John Champe for a 23-6 victory in Lexington on Friday, booking a spot in the state semifinals for the fifth consecutive season.

RC (14-2), the Region 4D champion, was slated to play host to Region 4A winner Powhatan in the semifinal round last night. Visit www.thenews-gazette.com for details about the outcome. The winner will travel to Charlottesville High School for the Class 4 state championship game on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

When the Wildcats faced Powhatan in the quarterfinals last year, they trailed for most of the way, rallying to tie the game in the closing seconds of regulation and going on to win 13-12 on a Mulitalo goal in overtime.

There would be no need for a wild finish against the Knights (12-6), who came in as the Region 4C runners-up. Beyond Mulitalo’s dozen points, Josie Caldwell had seven goals and one assist, and Ruby Goodhart recorded four goals and three assists.

Anna Nye tallied three goals and four helpers, but as usual her biggest impact came inside the center circle. The sophomore midfielder secured 16 draw controls herself and helped RC to an overall 21-10 edge on the allimportant draw circle.

“I knew that I had to step it up. … and just really put my mind specifically on one thing, so they can take care of everything else for me,” Anna Nye said about the draw circle.

The Wildcats jumped out to an early 3-0 lead behind goals from Goodhart, Mulitalo and Caldwell. April Kim got John Champe on the board with 3:42 remaining in the first quarter, and a free-position marker from Maddie Choi – who led the Knights with two goals and five draw controls – made it 3-2 at the 2:45 mark.

At that point, the Wildcats might have had one or two flashbacks to last year’s quarterfinal. “I think we definitely got a little nervous when they caught up to us in the first quarter,” Mulitalo said.

But any jitters were shortlived. Emma McKnight scored just 25 seconds after Choi’s 8-meter goal, kickstarting an 8-0 run. Goodhart’s third goal of the game capped the spurt and made it 11-2 with 4:15 left in the second period, and the Wildcats would take a 13-4 advantage into halftime.

RC’s offense was clicking almost from the opening draw. By halftime, Goodhart and Mulitalo had each scored four times, while Caldwell had a hat trick – and, excluding two 8-meter markers, 10 of the ’Cats’ 11 goals in the run of play were assisted.

“I think the key thing that got our offense [going] here today was patience,” Caldwell said.

Leah Belev opened the scoring in the second half, pulling the Knights to within 13-5. But Mulitalo went right back to work, scoring twice in a 42-second span to push the margin to 15-5 with 7:54 to go in the third period. John Champe seemed helpless in trying to contain RC’s junior offensive star.

“Lola is probably one of the best players [with] her change of speed, change of direction,” RC head coach Susan Nye said. “When she gets it in her head that she’s going to goal, she’s very hard to stop.”

While a goal from the Knights’ Delaney Neal with 6:44 to play made it 15-6, temporarily halting the running clock, that would prove to be the final offense of the night for the visitors. RC closed the contest with another string of eight unanswered markers to pull away for another convincing postseason win.

McKnight finished with one goal and two assists for RC, while Adrianna Grue added one goal and Mulitalo snared four draw controls. Belev tallied one goal and two assists for John Champe, and Neal posted one goal and one assist.

Emily Humphreys led the Wildcats’ defensive effort with four ground balls, and Nye had three caused turnovers. While the attack gets lead billing for scoring 23 goals in a state playoff game, the RC defense has allowed just 13 combined tallies across three postseason contests. The ’Cats blanked E.C. Glass 21-0 in the Region 4D semifinals and throttled Blacksburg 20-7 in the regional title game.

“ This i s o ur s econd y ear for our defensive scheme,” Coach Nye said. “We’re doing a really good job just with our communication, being able to get slides and just have that double team.”

For the game, the Wildcats outshot the Knights and held a 15-5 edge in draw controls. The contest also featured three career milestones: Caldwell secured her 100th career point, Nye grabbed her 100th ground ball and Mulitalo – who broke the RC goalscoring record earlier this season – notched her 100th career assist.

As of late, the Wildcats have looked like a team that’s on a mission to return to the state championship game, where they fell to Western Albemarle last year. And the momentum and execution from two commanding regional tournament performances has carried over into the state tournament.

“We had a really great game against Blacksburg [in the regional championship], and we knew what the standard was for this game,” Mulitalo said. “We just wanted to be patient and get the best goal we could find, the best transition.”

All season long, the Wildcats have worn warmup shirts with the slogan “one more” printed on the back. While RC didn’t need to take those words literally on Friday – unlike in last year’s quarterfinal thriller – the ’Cats still managed to play 48 minutes with that same sense of urgency.

“We totally go out for ‘one more’: like one more pass, one more shot, one more draw control,” Anna Nye said. “It’s all about the ‘one more.’ That’s all we stand by this year.”