Northern Light Brings Home USL Central Title
by Corey McLaughlin | LaxMagazine.com
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Elisabeth Wallace had three goals to help Northern
Lights (Colo.) win the US Lacrosse U15 Girls' Central Regional
Championship with a 12-9 win over Narwhals Lacrosse (Texas). © Jim Cowsert |
ARLINGTON, Texas -- The girls’ players on
team Northern Lights were trying to douse their coaches in ice
water all weekend after their games in the Texas heat at the US
Lacrosse Lax Fest and U15 Central Regional championships. They
finally got what they wanted on Sunday.
Northern Lights, from Denver, Colo., defeated Narwhals Lacrosse
(Texas), 12-9, to win the US Lacrosse U15 Central Regional title at
the Patterson Sports Complex. And afterward in the celebration,
head coach Brian Wallace and assistant Michael Zinanti voluntarily
got down on their knees as players poured the remaining ice and
water from their sideline cooler out on the coaches backs.
“Why are you all wet?” Olivia Hayden asked
sarcastically after to Wallace.
Hayden, for her part, scored three straight goals with less than
13 minutes left to change the situation from trailing from one goal
to leading by two, and give Northern Lights the lead it needed to
hold on to win against Narhwals (Texas). For Northern Lights,
a seventh- and eighth-grade, 15-player team from the northern part
of Denver, it was their first out-of-state tournament championship
win.
Northern Lights, along with Narhwals and third-place finisher
Texas Outlaws, qualify for the US Lacrosse U15 National
Championship, presented by Champion, held July 20-22 for girls as
part of the ESPN RISE GAMES at the ESPN Wide World of Sports
Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
The team travelled by van 15 hours Thursday from Denver to
Arlington, stopping in Kansas and Oklahoma along the way to take
lacrosse breaks at rest areas along the highway. Of the ride back
on Sunday, which was to begin after briefly stopping back at their
hotel to wash up, Wallace said: “It’s going to be a lot
more fun now.”
Northern Lights led 8-5 at the half before Narwhals scored three
straight in the first eight minutes of the second half to tie it at
8, including two goals when they were down a player because of a
three-minute misconduct penalty. But Northern Lights scored the
final four goals of the game.
“We talked at halftime about how a three-goal lead could
dissipate quickly, and it happened in about two minutes
there,” Wallace said. “But the good thing is we know
how to handle that because it happened to us yesterday [in an
earlier tournament game]. We were prepared for their
run.”
They were also prepared to celebrate.
“We’ve tried to do that the whole tournament,”
Elisabeth Wallace, who also scored three goals Sunday, said of
pouring water on the coaches, one of whom is her father.
“It was a long way to come,” Michael Wallace said of
the trip to Arlington, “but it was great for the team to play
other teams from the region and different styles.”
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