The Highland girls’ lacrosse team had built a five-goal lead on the Wallkill Panthers at halftime and spent the game’s last 25 minutes trying to hold off a pesky Panthers team that kept nipping at their heels.

The Panthers closed the lead to three goals late in the second half before the Huskies pulled away for a 14-8 win on Thursday afternoon at Wallkill High School.

“It feels great,” said Joann Williams, who led the Huskies with four goals. “It’s preparing us a lot for our sectional game and we’re trying really hard to win that.”

The Section 9 brackets were announced Thursday night, mere hours after the Huskies’ win over the Panthers. They’re scheduled to face James I. O’Neill on Wednesday at James I. O’Neill High School to play for the Section 9 Class D championship.

The Huskies have already squared off with the Raiders once this season, suffering a 21-10 loss on April 12.

“At this point, we’re pretty confident,” Williams said. “We’ve won our last couple of games, and the ones we haven’t, we’ve worked hard to try to get a win. We’re pretty confident of our skills, and what we’re going to bring.”

They brought enough on Thursday, as in addition to Williams’ four goals, Annabella Bruschetti added three goals. Quinn Ahrenholz and Leah Klotz scored two, while Jessica Rendon added two goals of her own. Kelcey Whalen also scored on a goal for the Huskies.

“Every game, someone big steps up,” Highland coach Ian Becker said. “Every game, we’ve got a bunch of different scorers. We’ve got lots of girls that can shoot, and lots of girls that can score, and today they spread the wealth a little bit more.”

They just couldn’t keep those pesky Panthers away.

As the Huskies led 8-3 going into the second half, Emma DiLemme scored a goal to pull the Panthers within four with about 23 minutes to go. From there, the Panthers and Huskies traded goals until Wallkill’s Grace Winchell’s goal pulled the Panthers to within 10-7 with 11:15 remaining.

That goal came about a minute after Caitlin Becker received a red card for a dangerous play, leaving the Huskies down a player for the game’s last 12:42.

“I think we played well considering we ended up having to play a man down for the last portion of the game,” coach Becker said. “But their ball control was pretty good. We found the back of the net when we needed to and came out on top.”
They really needed to after Winchell’s goal, and they got them as Klotz and Ahrenholz scored to give the Huskies a five-goal lead. After a score by Wallkill’s Brianna Merrill, the Huskies scored the final two goals to finish out the game.

It was the Huskies’ second win this week, as they beat Red Hook, 22-7 on May 15. Thursday’s win was the Huskies’ fifth straight. They’ve won six of their last seven and finished the regular season with an 8-6 overall record.

“We’re looking to win that banner,” Williams said. “We don’t have one in our school, so we’re going to try really hard to get this one.”