In their first and only meeting of the 2008 regular season, the Lady Golden Lions of St. Pius X High School visited Hughes Spalding Stadium to face the Lady War Eagles of Marist School for a balmy spring evening of varsity lacrosse. In the aftermath of the April 2 clash between the two schools, Marist won their 10th consecutive match 12-6, pushing their record to 10-1 and locking down a number one ranking among area teams.

The game got underway when St. Pius freshman attacker Meghann Girard faced off against Marist senior center Valerie McKeon. In the first 41 seconds of the 25-minute period, St. Pius struck first on a Megan Monroe goal to take a 1-0 lead. Nineteen seconds later Marist came down and tied the score on a goal by senior Catherine Beadles.

At the 19:47 mark St. Pius sophomore attacker Mary Jean Corcoran put her team back in the lead. With her second goal at the 17:30 mark, Beadles tied up the match again for Marist at 2-2. Beadles finished the match with four goals, as she leads Marist with 28 goals and 10 assists on the season.

Marist School senior Catherine Beadles dodges St. Pius X players as she moves in for the attack. She scored four goals in the match, three in the first period and one in the second, to help lead her team to a 12-6 victory. Photo By Michael Alexander

The game remained tied for only 11 seconds because Marist’s McKeon scored to give Marist its first lead of the match. Marist scored three straight times over the next 10 minutes of play before St. Pius attacker Madison Phillips scored with 5:20 remaining in the first period. Marist clung to a 6-3 lead. Marist scored three more goals before the end of the period to take a 9-3 lead into halftime.

McKeon scored the first goal 1:29 into the second period. St. Pius answered with a goal of its own by junior Natalie Owens. After trading scores, St. Pius tightened up its defense. Marist managed only three goals in the second period, but so did St. Pius. Fourth-year Marist varsity lacrosse coach Kathy Crowe felt her team was chasing St. Pius players from behind rather than being in between them and the ball. She also thought her players were failing to communicate among each other and losing opposing players in the process.

“One main adjustment we made was to try and pick them (Pius) up sooner in the midfield, instead of letting them get all the way down and set up on offense, and that seemed to help,” said Crowe.

St. Pius head coach Katherine Richelt felt her squad was fired up and ready to play when they took the field, but they appeared to get down on themselves once they fell behind.

“We got discouraged too early,” said Richelt. “Overall, we didn’t fight hard enough for the ball.”

“Marist out-hustled us, and it showed in the score,” added Richelt.

The loss drops St. Pius to 5-6 on the season. They travel to Alpharetta to take on Chattahoochee High School Tuesday, April 15. Marist will host Centennial High School Monday, April 14.