Alpharetta Survives Second Half Dunwoody Rally To Escape With 13-11 Win
On a rainy Monday evening, the Alpharetta Raiders buys lacrosse team hosted the Dunwoody Wildcats in an area match up, the first area game for the Raiders and second for the Wildcats, who lost their first area game to Roswell, and both teams coming off wins in their last contest. The Raiders would gain early momentum and dominate the entire first half of the game taking a 7-1 lead into the locker room at the half with Charlie Howard and Connor Corkill each connecting for two goals in the half.
The third quarter would start with the Raiders scoring first to take a 8-1 lead and appearing to be in full control of the match. However, the Wildcats would have different plans as they would go on a 8-1 run to tie the game at 9-9 with :37 seconds to go in the quarter and then adding another goal before the end of the period to take a 10-9 lead, their first lead of the game. But in the fourth quarter, the Raiders would prove to weather the storm, outscoring Dunwoody 3-1 in the period two regain the lead and pick up the 13-11 win.
Following the game, Alpharetta head coach Alex Gavilla, said that the Raiders knew that Dunwoody could easily turn things around in the second half based on who the Wildcats had facing off. “We knew they had a great faceoff guy and that if they could get going, they could have the ball a lot,” Gavilla said which led to the Raiders changing their face off approach. “We switched it up a little bit going into the fourth with the pull on the draw and that really helped give us some momentum,” Gavilla said of the win.
With the win, the Raiders have now won three consecutive games since losing their season opener and Gavilla credited his team’s “toughness” has been the biggest constant to lead them to the pat three wins. “Be Tough. Throughout everything, great teams find a way and after our first game we felt like the same way in the third (quarter of Monday’s game), we’re tied up going into the third, they scored five unanswered and we just weren’t tough enough, so toughness has been key for us and you saw that in those ground balls we picked up late in the quarter,” Gavilla said following Monday’s win.
The Raiders will be back in action on Thursday when they face Peachtree Ridge in a non-area match up, while Dunwoody will look to bounce back on Friday when they face Wesleyan, also a non-area game.
