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MILTON - Lassiter's first trip to the state girls lacrosse semifinals turned out to be as tough as expected Tuesday as the Lady Trojans fell to three-time defending state champion Milton, 20-4.

With a young squad featuring four freshmen in the starting lineup, Lassiter (12-7) was simply no match for the powerhouse Milton squad as the Lady Trojans fell behind, 7-0, at the beginning of the game. Lassiter trailed, 12-2, at halftime and were not able to close the gap against the Lady Eagles.

"It was a daunting task," Lassiter coach Faith Harmeyer said. "I'm proud of our girls for the way they hung in there. We're a young team and we've never played a team the caliber of Milton."

Hannah Sullivan scored two goals to lead Lassiter, with Jessica Brewer and Lauren Browne each adding one goal for the Lady Trojans.

For Milton, Marissa Hardy led the way with five goals, while Natalie Hill added three goals and Annelise Mowry, Karissa Phelps, Sarah Michel, Allie Ware and Jen Hoffman had two goals each for the Lady Eagles.

Milton got on the scoreboard just nine seconds into the game when Susannah Hardy scored a goal with 23:51 remaining in the first half to give the Lady Eagles a 1-0 lead.

Mowry added the next two goals for Milton, scoring with 21:16 remaining in the first half and then again with 20:47 left for a 3-0 Lady Eagle advantage.

Phelps scored with 18:35 left in the first half to increase the Milton lead to 4-0 and Hill added a goal of her with 17:06 left own to push the advantage up to 5-0.

Milton's run continued as Marissa Hardy scored the next two goals - the first one with 16:48 left and the second one with 13:27 left - to give the Lady Eagles a 7-0 lead.

Lassiter finally ended its scoring drought when Sullivan scored with 12:10 left in the first half to cut the Milton lead to 7-1.

Milton proceeded to score the next four goals as Hill scored with 10:40 remaining, Michel scored with 9:50 left, Allie Ware scored with 7:05 left and Marissa Hardy scored again with 4:16 left to increase the Lady Eagles' advantage to 11-1.

Sullivan got her second goal of the game when she scored with 3:18 left in the first half to help Lassiter cut the Milton lead to 11-2, but Phelps' goal with 2:28 left gave the Lady Eagles a 12-2 lead they would carry into halftime.

Milton scored the first eight goals of the second half to increase its lead to 20-2 with 6:32 remaining in the game before Lassiter answered with goals by Brewer with 3:32 left and Browne, the last with 33.9 seconds left, to help the Lady Trojans cut the Lady Eagles' margin of victory.

"Milton is a very fundamentally sound team," Harmeyer said. "They play a great ball control game. They were a very tough opponent for us."

While Lassiter will lose eight seniors off of its roster from this season, the Lady Trojans return all of their younger starters next season with a year of state playoff experience under their belts.

goshust@mdjonline.com

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