Hillgrove continues to 'trust in what we're doing', defeats Mountain Brook
On Saturday the Hillgrove Hawks girl's lacrosse team returned to the field looking for back to back wins coming off a 15-6 win over Providence Day on Friday night. as they hosted the Mountain Brook Spartans (Alabama). As the game got underway, the Hawks would quickly take a 2-0 lead as Aria Hannon and Elizabeth Bond would connect on back to back goals. The Spartans would eventually answer to make it 2-1 game following a Reagan Lewis goal, but two straight goals for the Hawks courtesy of Sarah Grace Ervin and Emme Neargarth would help Hillgrove extend their lead to 4-1.
Before the opening period would come to an end, Mountain Brook would cut the Hawks lead down to two points after a Ruthie Armstrong goal would make it a 4-2 game in favor of Hillgrove and as the second quarter got underway, the Spartans had momentum going in their direction as two more unanswered goals including Armstrong's second of the day would tie the game at 4-4. However, Hillgrove would then go on a 4-0 run to regain the lead, going up 8-4, but it would be the Spartans bouncing back with back to back goals to close out the period trailing 8-6.
In the second half, the momentum swings continued as the Hawks would open up the third quarter on a 5-0 run to take an 11-6 lead, but the Spartans, not backing down, would answer with back to back goals cutting the Hillgrove lead down to three points as they trailed 11-8 at the start of the fourth quarter. However, as the quarter continued, the Hillgrove defense would shut down the Spartans as their offense would score three consecutive goals to extend their lead to six points, their largest of the day, as they went up 14-8. The Hawks would go on to pick up the 15-10 win with Elizabeth Bond finishing with four goals and Marleigh Belinfanti adding three goals, and improve to 4-1 on the season.
"I'm just proud to see us finally gel," Hillgrove head coach Keon Humphries, said after Saturday's win as the Hawks made it two consecutives following their loss to Creekview on Tuesday. "The whole month of February was just us kind of going against each other so, getting a chance to see our work in action in true play is really good for us right now as we work towards region play and further down the line," Humphries added about the progress of his players through their first five games. Following Saturday's win, Humphries noted that he believes his players learning to "trust in what we're doing" as been vital to them being able to withstand runs by their opponents, something they dealt with throughout Saturday's win.
"We're working on a lot of different things right now, just trying to work some kinks out so even if somethings is not necessarily going great for us right now, we're working through some schematical things right now and I just want to see it play out and they're all kind of working with the same deal and we see some good, we see some bad but it's great for them to see it now so we can make the adjustments," Humphries said. Hillgrove will be back in action on Monday, when they travel to take on Kell in a non-region matchup then will host Carrollton on Wednesday in region play.
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