Girls lax wins triple-OT thriller against Tualatin

“It was a good one. We expected it to be good game,” McElderry said. “But we definitely made it a bit harder on our own accord. Shooting-wise, we made, I think, five shots straight into the goalie’s stick. Once we started taking a split second and placing our shots, our success went up dramatically.”

The Eagles let their presence be known early, finding the back of the net three times via three different players (Lauren Orr, Kat McElderry, and Terra Mikkelsen) to go up by as many goals within the first four minutes of the game.

However, the Timberwolves found their footing, relying on their two most prolific scorers, Lauren Magnuson and Jordan Mitchell, who had 45 and 81 goals, respectively, heading into Friday’s game. Tualatin outscored the Eagles 6-2 through the rest of the half to hold a one-goal lead at the end of 25 minutes.

“There were only two people that scored for Tualatin, and while we knew of them prior to the game, we struggled to shut them down,” McElderry said.

The Timberwolves extended their lead to 8-5, scoring twice in less than three minutes to start the half, but it became HRV’s turn to rally, with the Eagles clawing back to within one goal with less than five to go in regulation. Tualatin desperately clung to their lead and lost it for the rest of the night, when Emma Norris scored on an assist from Mikkelsen with less than a minute to go.

The teams took a five-minute break and then played two three-minute overtime periods to no avail until Katie Koenig finally broke through just over a minute into the third overtime period, scoring an unassisted goal.

Unlike Tualatin, HRV’s diverse offense had six find the back of the net and eight score points. McElderry had her most prolific game since returning from a shoulder injury late last month, leading the team with four unassisted goals. Koenig had two goals, an assist, and led the team in caused turnovers (four), draw controls won (four), and tied Rebecca Kiyokawa with a team-high five ground balls. Norris also had a multi-goal game, scoring twice.

Also garnering at least a point in Friday’s contest were Mikkelsen (goal, assist), Orr (goal), Josie Petersen (goal), Daisy Dolan (assist), and Lauren Trumbull (assist).

McElderry was effusive in his praise of yet another solid goaltending effort by Ella Rand, who “came up with some amazing saves. She made three critical saves on shooting space fouls.” She ended the night stopping 11 of Tualatin’s 21 shots (52 percent).

With a high ranking and not many games left on the regular season schedule, McElderry said the Eagles “are solidly in the gold bracket,” which is the upper tier of the playoff bracket in Oregon girls lacrosse. What is still unknown at this point is who HRV will draw in the first round of play and whether they will have homefield advantage.

The Eagles will host No. 10 Lincoln (7-5) Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Henderson Community Stadium in what will be their final home game and league contest of the regular season, and then travel to Bend Friday for a 5:15 p.m. game against the No. 22 Lava Bears (9-2).