Wise gets 100th save as Eagles romp past St. Joseph Academy
Saturday was Megan Wise’s day.
The junior goalie allowed a few goals early and a few goals late, but when it mattered most, she was a brick wall as Avon’s girls lacrosse team broke away from host St. Joseph Academy to take a 14-6 decision at Victory Park.
In her first year as Avon’s starting goalie, Wise allowed just one goal over a long stretch that covered the second and third quarters, helping the Eagles outscore SJA, 10-1, to turn a 4-2 lead after one period into a 14-3 advantage after three. Along the way, she picked up her 100th save of the season, as she had 11 saves against the Jaguars.
“It’s the first huge milestone in any little goalie’s career,” she said. “It’s kind of big.”
Last year, Wise was the backup goalie to Grace Herbert, who is now playing at Kent State. But she bided her time and has become a fixture in goal for the Eagles, especially in recent outings. Thursday the Eagles defeated Olmsted Falls, 14-4, to earn at least a share of the Northern Ohio Lacrosse League title. The game started on March 26, when the Bulldogs scored two goals in the first 6 minutes. But in the restart on Thursday they only got two more in the final 42 minutes.
“She’s gotten a lot of those saves lately,” said coach Erich Frombach. “She’s played really well lately, but that’s not to say that she hasn’t played well all year. She’s just locked in and she’s seeing the ball really well. It’s significant because she’s worked really hard. She could have been the starter on a lot of teams last year, but she had to wait her turn behind Grace. But she was patient and she’s worked really hard. I’m really happy for her.”
While Wise was ecstatic to reach the 100-save plateau, she was quick to spread around the credit.
“It’s the defense,” she said. “They always have my back. I can’t make a save unless my defense does their job first. The hard shots, the amazing shots, they’re going to go in sometimes, and that’s credit to the attacker. But when my defense is on their game and they have my back and give me the opportunity to make a save, that’s all I need.”
Avon, 12-3, was led on offense by junior midfielder Ella Schaffer with four goals, all scored during the 10-1 run in the second and third quarters. She was backed by Ashlyn Hider with three goals, Madison Dunn and Mia Della Valle with two each and Piper Guhde, Brailynn Parker with one each.
The Eagles never trailed, and they scored twice in the opening 3 minutes to take a 2-0 lead. But the Jaguars hung around for the entire first quarter, which ended with Avon on top, 4-2. But in the second and third quarters, the Eagles sandwiched two five-goal runs around a single SJA goal to build a 14-3 lead, resulting in the final 17 minutes of the game being played with a running clock.
““We started sharing the ball and we were beating them up and down the field,” Frombach said. “I think the girls were just locked in. The atmosphere here can be deceiving. It’s 10:00 in the morning, it’s their senior day, and we didn’t practice yesterday because of the rain. So, you just don’t know how they’re going to react. But they came out and did a really good job. They played really hard.”
