BRUNSWICK—The Mt. Ararat Eagles girls’ lacrosse team wasn’t going to let a game against Brunswick slip away for the second time this season.

After losing to the Dragons 10-9 in the second game of the season, the Eagles handed Brunswick their first loss of the season Thursday as Carly Raymond’s goal with a 1:05 remaining in the game, gave it a 9-8 victory.

“It’s huge,” said Raymond. “Brunswick was undefeated, it’s an awesome feeling.”

The Eagles (8-3) took the early 1-0 lead 44 seconds in when Hannah House found the back of the net from a feed from Sierra Gilley.

The Dragons quickly responded as defenseman Liz Faulkner ran down the field and fired the ball past goaltender Anna Bruning at the 1:21 mark of the opening fame.

Brunswick (10-1) took its first lead when Dakota Foster found Anne Kelly 3:18 into the game.

The teams traded goals as Mt. Ararat tied the contest with a goal from Sara Berry 5:51 in. Foster regained the lead for Brunswick a minute later.

Rowley Jones started to take control for the Eagles at 7:53 mark as she tied the contest up at three (Haley Michaud set the goal up). Jones would give her team a 5-3 lead with goals at the 11:34 mark and with 10:46 left in the first half.

Michaud gave Mt. Ararat a 6-3 advantage with 9:37 left in the opening stanza.

The Dragons cut the deficit down to one at halftime with Corinne O’Connor tallying with 3:07 left in the half and Foster notching her second of the half three minutes later (set up by Faulkner).

“I let the girls talk about it a little bit more (at halftime),” Mt. Ararat coach Sam Chard said. “They are smart players and they’ve been through a lot. I have a lot of faith in them.”

Foster would tie the contest up at six a minute into the second half.

“I said at halftime I thought we were lucky it was only a one goal game,” Brunswick coach Beth Caputi said. “(Mt. Ararat) could have taken advantage a little bit more.”

The Eagles had the lead again when Michaud added her second of the game 7:22 into the final frame.

“With two good teams like this, you know a good team will capitalize on any mistake.” said Chard. “We tried to limit that this time around. We tried to hold on the ball a little more and possess the ball a little bit better.

Brunswick would go up 8-7 with tallies from Foster and and Suzannah Smith.

Mt. Ararat tied the game with 3:36 remaining before Raymond added the final dagger.

“It could have gone either way,” Chard said. “That’s the thing about this game – it’s a beautiful game – both teams played hard.”

Raymond noted Mt. Ararat capitalized on their opportunities.

“We capitalized on their mistakes that they made,” she said.

Caputi said the Eagles’ passing was crisp compared to the first time the teams played.

“Their passing was very spot on today,” Caputi said. “Their transition game was great, I thought they played a great game. They beat us through the midfield, but I though our defense did a pretty good job today. They needed to make the catches and we weren’t as sharp as we can be.”

Chard thought draws played a big factor in the victory.

“The first time we played, they probably crushed us 3-to-1 in (draws),” Chard stated. “The draws were pretty good today. People moved forward to the ball and our kids wanted it.

Brunswick put the loss in perspective.

“I said to them it’s a loss, it was a well fought game, but this isn’t the game that counts,” Caputi stated. “If this was the regional finals, with a trip to the states on the line, which we have lost to them on that occasion, I wish we just had a little more emotion today.”

Mt. Ararat (now fourth in the Eastern A Heals) faces Messalonskee on Tuesday and top-ranked Brunswick hosts Cony in the battle between the top two teams.

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