Pingry girls lacrosse hangs on to beat Montgomery

MONTGOMERY -- Anna Zauner did her best to help Montgomery stay close, but in the end Pingry escaped with an 11-10 win on Saturday afternoon.

"We had a really tough first half," Montgomery coach Tiffany Trockenbrod said. "If you look at the stats, we won the second half. We had a better second half than we did the first half, but that killed us."

Over the first 25 minutes, the Cougars fell behind, 5-2. Zauner, who finished with six goals, had four in the second half to help lead the turnaround. But despite the senior's best efforts, Montgomery was never able to catch the Big Blue.

A goal each from Zauner and Nikki Duran after the break cut Pingry's lead to one goal, but the Big Blue responded with three, including two from Annelise Kinney. The Cougars again chipped away at the deficit midway through the half, twice getting it back to two goals, only to see it balloon again.

The strongest push came over the final 2:27, when Zauner scored three quick goals to get Montgomery within 11-10. But once again, Pingry (1-1) showed its resilience and managed to see out the victory.

"We had to bounce back today after yesterday's loss (11-7 to Delaware Valley)," Big Blue coach Carter Marsh Abbott said. "And each time they brought this game close, we answered. They brought it close, we stuffed one back. ... The kids, I was really proud of them because that's not a skill we had last year. We weren't able to respond or when we responded it was too late."

Though Trockenbrod liked the fight of her team, she was left disappointed by the sloppy play that put them in such a big hole in the first place.

"Overall, we were in the game," Trockenbrod said. "Obviously, we only lost by one. But we lost the ball so much. We turned it over so much. It wasn't so much them causing it, it was us turning the ball over - bad passes, not picking up the ground ball, not catching the ball - just bad turnovers."

That is not to say Pingry did not make things difficult for the Cougars throughout the day, however. Mary Pagano scored four goals and Kinney netted three, all of which came in the second half, to help keep Montgomery at bay. The Big Blue was also strong defensively, especially in transition.

"They had a good ride," Trockenbrod said. "Let's say our goalie made a save or we got the ball, we made a stop in the defensive end. They rode the ball very well and made it tough for us to get the ball into attack."