The wind chill and low temperatures were less than ideal for lacrosse in May but Loyola (11-3) and Hinsdale Central (8-2) toughed it out as the Ramblers walked away with a 9-4 win in Glenview Thursday.
Chills were felt, limbs were numb but their game faces were still on.
“I think we adjusted well,” said Katherine Eilers. “It was hard with the wind to get our passes right, we talked at halftime how we have to make the passes even stronger.”
Anne Dooley kicked things off for the Ramblers five minutes into the first half and it snowballed from there with two goals from Eilers and goals by Maggie Nick and Megan Schulte. The Red Devils tallied three goals of their own in the first half — two by Kate Christian and one by Honour Mullaney — but Loyola continued to dominate well into the second half. Eilers knocked in her third goal of the game ten minutes into the half and Dooley followed with a hat trick of her own.
“We’ve been working on our defense and our drive,” said Nick. “Fifty-fifty balls are so important coming up from a draw and we’ve been getting better at it.”
Hinsdale Central’s Chelsea Boyle found the back of the net with 17:19 left in the second half but that would be the Red Devil’s final goal as Delia Snediker responded with the last tally.
“They had a lot of fast girls,” said Eilers. “But we handled it well.”
Loyola head coach John Dwyer isn’t surprised that his team has come this far and is confident in their future.
“We’ve played some pretty big teams, teams that will definitely be there in the postseason and we shut them all out in the second half,” he said. “Mary Kate [Vanecko] did awesome in the net, our defense played great and we were able to make up for some turnovers.”
