RallyNorth.net

Tue, Jun 10, 2014 05:00 PM @ Pinkerton

Team	1	2	Final
Souhegan	3	9	12
Pinkerton	9	4	13

Pinkerton girls repeat with 13-12 win

Tuesday, June, 10 By Christopher Smith

HOOKSETT — Ali Davis is described by her coach as a quiet kid. “But her actions can speak very loudly,” coach Pinkerton girls lacrosse Rob Daziel said.

Flash back to last year’s Division 1 title game. Davis, a sophomore, scored a late goal in Pinkerton’s two-goal thrilling win over Souhegan. And she was at it again yesterday in this year’s championship game against Souhegan despite not recording a goal or assist.

With the Sabers staging a furious comeback — on an 8-1 run to pull within one goal of Pinkerton with 1:09 remaining —Davis took the draw and controlled it.

Rushing downfield, she and the No. 2 seeded Astros ran out the clock to win their second straight state title, 13-12, over top-seeded Souhegan here at Southern New Hampshire University in front of a crowd of 576.

“She really stepped up to the plate when we needed the ball and she got the ball for us so without Ali we wouldn’t have won,” Pinkerton senior Kennedy Daziel said.

The way Souhegan dominated during the second half, Pinkerton likely would have lost if Davis didn’t control it.

While Souhegan (18-3) won the battle of draw controls 18-9, Davis won the one the Astros (18-3) needed most.

“She’s rock solid,” Rob Daziel said. “You can’t shake her.”

Nothing came easy for the Astros during a tense second half.

“I’m not going to lie, I was extremely scared,” Kennedy Daziel said. “I know that they can put the ball in the net and I know they can come back. But I had faith in my team and I knew we could pull it off.”

Davis has been playing lacrosse since the second grade and follows in the footsteps of her father Jim Davis, who played for the Pinkerton boys lacrosse team when he was in high school. Jim Davis has been a huge influence, teaching Ali the game and working on faceoffs with her.

“Every faceoff is really important,” Davis said. “I just knew it was at the end of the game and it was really important. I wanted to help my team.”

Davis admitted she was a little nervous taking it. Meanwhile, her teammate, Micaela Capozzo, who scored Pinkerton’s lone goal during Souhegan’s 8-1 run over the final 17:46 of the contest, admitted all the Astros had to calm down.

“We were definitely very frazzled,” said Capozzo a junior who will play at Gannon University in Erie, Pa., and who scored with 4:58 remaining to make it 13-10.

When asked about her second and final goal of the contest, Capozzo said, “When someone scores after (the other team) scores a lot, kind of everyone’s like, ‘OK, we can do this again.’”

Pinkerton lost 14-13 to Souhegan during their only regular season meeting back on May 29. So yesterday was sweet revenge.

“We forced it a lot and we were very frazzled and we just really wanted to win (the first time), but this game we had a plan, we sat down and we figured out what we needed to do and we succeeded,” Capozzo said.

Team Daziel

Kennedy Daziel led Pinkerton with four goals. Yesterday was a special day for her because the returning Eagle-Tribune MVP was coached for the final time by her dad, Rob Daziel, who won the 2013 Eagle-Tribune Coach of the Year award.

“It’s bittersweet really with him coaching me for so long,” Kennedy Daziel said. “It’s going to be a little bit weird next year, but I know he’ll always be there supporting me.”

Rob Daziel, who is in third year coaching Astros, will return next year as head coach despite Kennedy heading to Southern New Hampshire University where she will play next spring.

Rob’s college coach

Rob Daziel’s former New England College coach, Don Emerson, was there to watch.

Rob appeared in the North-South National All-Star Game when playing at New England College under Emerson and graduated from the school in 1987.

“He taught me everything I know,” Rob said, smiling as he approached Emerson after yesterday’s victory.

Rob Daziel said to junior Micaela Capozzo, “Hopefully, you’ll have a great relationship with your college coaches like I did.”

Dominant first half

Yes, Souhegan dominated the second half but Pinkerton dominated the first half leading 9-3 at halftime.

“We were not relaxed at all during that game,” Kennedy Daziel said. “We knew at halftime anything could happen.”

Souhegan outshot Pinkerton 23-18 but the Astros outshot the Sabers 12-8 during the first half.

“(Souhegan) got most of the draw controls in the first half,” Kennedy Daziel said. “But our defense really stepped up and caused turnovers.”

Transfer scores

Aleah Mackay (one goal, one assist) transferred to Pinkerton from Bedford before this season.

Her old team Bedford won the Division 2 championship over Windham also here at Southern New Hampshire University yesterday.

Mackay, a senior, is committed to play at Syracuse University.