Intensity, rather than love, was in the air for the Valentine’s Day matchup between the Hopkins Blue Jays and the Boston College Eagles women’s lacrosse teams.
The sixth-ranked, visiting Eagles handed Hopkins their first loss of the season with a 9-5 victory.
Momentum swung back and forth throughout the first half, with both teams putting 10 or more shots on goal.
Senior Mikaela Rix got the offense going in a hurry for the Eagles with a pair of goals within the first seven minutes of play, while Hopkins countered with a pair of its own from junior captain Dene DiMartino.
After Rix opened the scoring with a sneaky shot below the crossbar, teammate and fellow midfielder Caroline Margolis followed suit with a goal of her own, and Hopkins found themselves down in an early 2-0 hole.
Lady Jays junior Kristen Cannon answered quickly with an offensive push that drew a double-team before passing to sophomore attack Alexis Maffucci, who cut across the crease to fire in her third goal of the season.
Rix picked it right back up for the Golden Eagles, capitalizing on a Hopkins turnover for her second goal of the afternoon. BC attack Sarah Mannelly then put a bounce shot in net to bring the score to 1-4 before the Jays took over for the half.
DiMartino found her first goal with a free position shot. Then freshman Emily Kenul made it a one-goal game with an impressive effort, checking the ball away from a Golden Eagle before scooping and scoring for her second career goal.
DiMartino followed with a sidearm bullet from seven yards deep, and sophomore Haley Schweizer capped the four-goal run with a low goal that gave the Lady Jays the lead to close out the first half.
Down 5-4 to begin the half, the Eagles came out gunning with two quick goals to retake the lead.
Senior Covie Stanwick, whose brother Steele coaches for the Jays, made her way from behind the goal into scoring position for a low goal. Meanwhile Margolis completed the second third of her hat trick on a similar play minutes later.
Margolis was able to complete the trio later in the half, followed by goals from sophomore teammates Tess Chandler and Laura Frankenfield to round out the nine scores that quantified the day’s heavy attack.
DiMartino led the way offensively for Hopkins with her two goals, while Kenul pitched in a goal and an assist. Goalie and captain KC Emerson saved four shots, while fellow goalkeeper Caroline Federico saved three.
The loss for Hopkins comes at an interesting time in the season, following a dramatic win over Marquette last week. Still early in the season, it’s all about the learning process for captain DiMartino.
“BC is a well-coached top 10 team,” DiMartino said. “We stuck to our game plan, marking up on their big guns, but unfortunately we let the second half slip from us when their role players stepped up.
“We can take so much from this game knowing we were that close with the amount of mistakes made, so we are going to watch a lot of film, clean some things up and prepare for our next opponent,” he continued.
