On Wednesday May 26, the Huntley girls lacrosse team faced the Hampshire Whip Purs in an extremely successful Senior Night. The Red Raiders came into the game with a 1-0 record against the Whip Purs, previously beating them 10-4 back in April. Coming into the game, Huntley had a record of 6-4, and Hampshire was 3-7. However, for Hampshire, that record quickly became 3-8.

In the first 12 minutes of the game, Huntley scored six goals thanks to junior Kyleigh Higgins,  senior Roni Bac,  junior Emma Farr, and senior Riley Flickinger. With this huge lead, the girls knew they had to keep their confidence up, but to still play smart.

“I was super excited but I knew we shouldn’t start to lose our effort too quickly, we still had a very tough game to play,” junior defenseman Tabby Payne said.

Despite this great lead, with 13 minutes remaining in the first quarter, Hampshire scored. Quickly, junior Emma Nolte came back to gain the six point lead back. However, not much time passed until Hampshire was able to score again with 11 minutes remaining in the first quarter.

After letting two goals go through in a short amount of time, morale was starting to get a little low. 

“I knew I needed to be more aggressive and use more skill when it came to preventing another Hampshire goal,” Payne said. 

During a mask break, coaches Joe Domka and Walt Kopp gave words of encouragement and hyped the girls up. Players such as junior Sam Cielak and Flickinger gave motivational cheers to encourage the girls to keep that fire they had for the first part of the half going for the rest of the game.

“I think it was a bummer for all of us, but it caused us to work harder and play better,” Cielak said. 

Needless to say, all of the players worked harder. Goalie Caysie Vargas made two amazing stops, sophomore Ashley Zolen scored two goals in the remaining half, and junior Nicole Flaherty played amazing defense, pressing Hampshire’s #19 for the entire game. 

With less than a minute on the clock, Hampshire got a free shot on goal, but missed, leading to Huntley gaining possession. This change led to a hattrick in under 1 minute, and another goal for Nolte as well. Going into the second half, Huntley was crushing Hampshire 13-2. 

After halftime, the girls continued to play with fire and confidence. Although Hampshire had a handful of shots on goal during the second half, they did not score again for the rest of the game. Huntley, on the other hand, managed to score five more goals, ending the game with a score of 18-2 Huntley.

While all players played exceptionally well, Higgins had the best game scoring sveen goals for Huntley.

With their last two games coming up this Saturday and next Friday, the girls lacrosse team is ready to continue their winning streak and finish the season strong for conference.

“I think we all know what we’re capable of, so we’re going to try extra hard so we can win in the playoffs,” Cielak said.