Damian’s OT Goal Sends Girls Lax To Fourth Straight State Quarterfinal

The Nantucket girls lacrosse team has had some heartbreaking finishes to their seasons in recent years, and the Manchester Essex Hornets have been largely responsible for those endings after beating the Whalers in the 2022 Div. 4 state semifinal and 2023 Div. 4 state quarterfinal.

But on Wednesday, the #8 seeded Whalers rallied back on multiple occasions to ultimately walk away with a 7-6 overtime win over the #9 seeded Hornets at Vito Capizzo Stadium – punching their ticket to the program’s fourth straight state quarterfinal.

"That's what they can do. That's what you can do when you have a team that can work together and they all believe in themselves," Whaler head coach Jami Lower said. "That was just exactly what happened (in the final play)... a save from Ella (Douglas, goalie), a ground ball from I think it was Alex (Wisentaner) to Myah (Johnson) to running it up to pass to Grace (Hanlon). I mean, I'm so proud of them. They played 100 percent.”

The sequence referenced by Lower encapsulated what has been at the core of this Whaler team’s success: teamwork.

Douglas, a first year starter, made an eight-meter save on a Hornet player in a sudden death situation, which immediately became the most important save of her young career, followed up by a strong transition up field from several Whaler players before Dylan Damian was ultimately able to rip a shot by Hornet’s goalie Brigid Carovillano, who will be playing Division 1 lacrosse for the University of North Carolina next season.

"It all started with an eight meter shot in sudden death victory I mean, I don't think there's any more pressure than that, and I think that Ella was able to do it and she made the save,” Lower said. “Again, it was all of them. I don't think it was any one thing. I think it was the combination of all of them.”

The game didn’t begin the way Nantucket had hoped. The Hornets scored the first two goals just seven minutes into the first quarter. But Nantucket senior captain Mayson Lower, who scored her 100^th career goal earlier this season and has assumed a prime leadership role of this squad, scored on an eight-meter shot beating Carovillano with 48 seconds left in the first to make it a 2-1 game.

The Hornets scored 22 seconds into the second quarter to make it 3-1, but Lower once again stepped up at a moment where her team needed her most. She cut the Manchester-Essex lead to 3-2 with 10:19 to go in the second quarter off a nice assist from fellow senior captain Maddie Lombardi.

Then with 5:06 remaining in the half, Damian was able to score the equalizer and force a Hornet’s timeout with momentum firmly on Nantucket’s side. Lower would score her third goal of the game with 2:08 to go in the half, beating Carovillano once again on an eight-meter shot to give Nantucket their first lead of the afternoon, 4-3, as they entered halftime.

The Hornets came out strong to begin the second half and scored the equalizer just a shade under two minutes into the third quarter. But as Nantucket had been doing all game, they rallied to retake their lead following a goal by promising freshman Louisa Beni to make it 5-4 with 7:32 to go in the third and then Lombardi scored her first of the game to make it 6-4 just 30 seconds later.

The Whalers took their two goal lead into the final quarter and began to clamp down on Manchester Essex offense as the Hornets frantically searched for answers. With 8:45 to go in the game, Johnson went down with an injury that turned out to be cramping in her leg. Just seconds after she was helped off the field and left Nantucket void of their best defender, Manchester Essex scored to make it 6-5 and then shortly after Johnson returned later in the quarter, made it 6-6 with 1:40 to go in the game – sending the match to overtime.

"That's the most intense game we played easily all year," Jami Lower said. "A lot of these guys don't have experience in these kinds of games. I think when Myah went down, it kind of was like a moment of like, 'Oh God,' and then (the Hornets) scored two goals, but they pulled it back together, Myah came back on, and they never let down. I mean, the effort was all over the place. They played smart. They played smart the way that I know they can. And that's it.”

Damian’s goal led to pandemonium on the field for a young Whaler team that has grown significantly this season and developed their team-game more and more with every minute that comes off the game clock. Nantucket will now travel to play Cohasset, the #1 seed in the Div. 4 bracket, on Friday, June 6th at 2 p.m.

"It feels incredible. It feels incredible. I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled," Jami Lower said. “They're not used to the physicality of a team like that. It was the first time for a lot of them and they're like, 'Oh wait a minute.' We talked about it at nauseum. They embraced it. They embraced the physicality of the game and then they were like, 'Okay, we are going to have to work hard today, and they did."