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Girls Lacrosse: Tuckers fight back from early hole to beat Westhampton

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It was difficult to ascertain what was more impressive in Mattituck/Greenport/Southold’s 9-7 girls lacrosse victory over Westhampton Beach on Thursday morning. 

The Tuckers overcame a three-goal first-half deficit before staging a memorable comeback by outscoring the Hurricanes, 7-2, in the Division II game at Mattituck.

They also controlled the ball for virtually the final six minutes of the match, not an easy thing to accomplish in a sport that is so attack-minded.

Sophomore midfielder Jane DiGregorio snapped a 7-7 deadlock with her second goal with 11:04 remaining in the match and senior midfielder Audrey Hoeg added an insurance goal with 1:12 left for the Tuckers (7-3, 6-3 Division II).

It didn’t look very promising in the early going as the Hurricanes (7-5, 5-5) dominated the faceoffs and grabbed a 5-2 advantage with 13:12 to go in the first half on a hat trick by Isabell Smith and two free position goals by Caitlin Smith.

Slowly, but surely Mattituck worked its way back into the match. Riley Hoeg cut the lead to 5-3 with 7:59 remaining before Isabella Recchion tallied on yet another free position goal for Westhampton with 2:35 left. Senior Katie Hoeg, however, recorded the first of her four consecutive goals to slice the margin to 6-4 at the half.

Katie Hoeg continued her dominance by winning the first three faceoffs of the second half and scoring three times in the opening 4:14 to lift the Tuckers into a 7-6 lead.

Shelby Meduski equalized at 7-7 with 14:42 to go in the match before DiGregorio provided her scoring heroics.

After the team’s traded a few possessions, Katie Hoeg intercepted a pass at midfield to begin the Tuckers’ long possession.

Audrey Hoeg was awarded a free position with 2:31 left. She said she felt she did not have a good angle from which to shoot. So, she decided to pass it to a teammate. Finally, she found room and scored to give he Tuckers some much-needed breathing room just over a minute later.

Photo Caption: Mattituck senior Katie Hoeg, left, battles for possession against Westhampton’s Emilee Downs. (Credit: Garret Meade)