Westwood Lacrosse Team Takes Home Div. 1 State Title [Video]

The Wolverines (25-0-1) captured the Division 1 State Title Friday night by defeating the Longmeadow Lancers 15-9 at Foley Stadium in Worcester.

The title was the third for the Wolverines in the last four seasons, with each of their finals victories coming against the Lancers.

Junior Laura McHoul led the offensive attack Friday for Westwood with six goals and after the game, described the feeling of victory.

“Its just such a great feeling”, McHoul said. “The excitement and adrenaline of winning is there because it’s just such an accomplishment.”

McHoul wasted little time getting the scoring started as she put in a free shot less than two minutes into regulation.

The offense ran into a bit of trouble finding its rhythm early however and head coach Leslie Frank said nerves were the biggest factor.

“I don’t know that they seemed that confident coming in,” said Frank. "We had a lot of turnovers in that first half so I think they were building confidence as they got more goals but I think we were damn nervous.”

It took the Wolverines until the 11:47 mark in the first half to score four goals, the longest it’s taken them to do that all throughout the playoffs.

Despite only falling behind 4-1 midway through the half, Longmeadow head coach Steve Dudeck said he felt the need to talk things over with his girls. The Lancers came out of the timeout strong and cut the deficit to 5-3, thanks to consecutive goals by Alexa Cambi.

Within 45 seconds, senior captain Emily McGrail fired back and notched her second goal of the half for Westwood, setting the stage for junior Kate Rich to close out the half.

Westwood controlled the ball with 30 seconds left and looked to manage the final shot. Rich had trouble finding cutters and decided to take it herself, spun through the defense and put in what was arguably the goal of the game with four seconds left on the clock.

"We knew there wasn’t much time left and I just tried to find the openings in their defense and wanted to go into the half with some good momentum,” Rich said.

And it proved to be the ultimate momentum, as freshman Ela Hazar scored 14 seconds into the second half for the Wolverines, who started on a 4-1 run and opened up a seven-goal lead. Hazar was one of five Wolverines to score and Dudeck explained the difficulty of trying to contain so many offensive weapons.

“It’s so difficult to focus on one kid,” Dudeck said. “They have seven solid offensive players in the zone and the minute you think someone is going to score, you have McGrail there and you worry abut her and then Rich and Laura, and of course there’s Sarah (Biron).”

Biron, the senior captain, who was limited offensively in the semi-finals due to a hip-flexor injury, seemed near prefect on Friday, as she scored four goals—three in the second half.

“Words can’t describe how strong she is mentally and physically, day in and day out," Rich said of Biron. "She hustles all over the field and I’m just really happy for her.” 

Westwood kept the lead to upwards of five goals for the remainder of the game and out-shot the Lancers 28-18 for the contest.

Mollie Brown made five saves in net for the Wolverines and was stormed by her entire team upon the final buzzer.

The Wolverines were finally able to do something that Frank as well as her players stressed all year, and that’s putting an entire game together.

“(Longmeadow) put up a great fight but we worked hard all 50 minutes and I couldn’t ask for a better game for us to end our season,” said McGrail. 

It was evident that emotions were running wild after the game, especially for the six seniors, but for the freshman Hazar, it was all excitement. 

“Everyone did such a great job and I’m just so pumped winning my first championship,” she said, and also talked about her uphill battle to eventual starter status and goals for the future.

“At the beginning it was really hard, but you just have to keep practicing and get confident and work with everyone," Hazar said. "I am so excited to be part of Westwood lacrosse and am hoping to win the next three championships.”

Laura McHoul added two assists to her six goals, Sarah Biron had an assist with her four goals and Hazar had three assists and a goal. McGrail and Rich each scored twice, with McGrail adding two assists and Rich with one. Junior defender Shelly Walsh also had an assist for Westwood. 

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