Last second Goal Pushes Women’s Lacrosse Past Pilgrims in NECC Semifinals

Henniker, N.H. – The Elms College Women's Lacrosse team is heading to the New England Collegiate Conference Championship game, after defeating the New England College Pilgrims in the NECC Semifinals, Thursday afternoon.

The semifinal game turned into a thrilling 60 minutes of play with neither team leading by more than two goals. The game saw eight lead changes and would come down to the final seconds.   

New England College was the first team to score, Elms was able to answer, as they scored three straight goals with two coming from Erienne Dowe (Somers, CT), to take a 3-1 lead 10 minutes in. The Pilgrims were able to tie the game with back-to-back goals. The two teams would continue to trade goals, and would go into halftime with Elms holding a slight 7-6 advantage.

NEC came out of the break on the attack with a power play, as Elms was a man down, and tied things up 7-7. Elms regained the lead at 8-7 on a goal from Taylor Borla (Southington, CT). NEC picked up two straight goals to give New England College their second lead of the game. The Blazers answered back as Callahan and Borla scored two goals within 27 seconds, to take an 11-10 lead. The Pilgrims were able to tie the game with 3:35 left. Down to the wire, with only 12 seconds left on the clock, Anna-Elise Pikul caught a bullet of a pass from Elise Paier (West Springfield, MA) with only inches of net between Pilgrims' goalie Gallasso and the pipe, where she buried the game winner.

Emma Walsh (Dracut, MA) played a spectacular game, registering 11 saves in the win after seeing 29 shots in the game. Pikul scored four goals for the Blazers, while Borla, Bryce McDonald (Dracut, MA) and Dowe added two a piece. Pikul also scooped up seven ground balls, and Dowe won seven draw controls for the Blazers. 

Elms is now headed to Becker College's Alumni Field (Leicester Campus) to take on the top-seeded Hawks in the NECC Championship on Sunday, May 2nd at 2pm.