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Datino leads Heritage by Arapahoe

Sudden-death goal gives Eagles victory

By Angie Mudd, Special to the Rocky

Published April 2, 2008 at 6 p.m.

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The girls on the Heritage and Arapahoe lacrosse teams don't remember ever playing an overtime game, let alone playing sudden death.

So the matchup Wednesday between the Continental League rivals will be a game the teams won't soon forget.

"In my four years playing, I can't ever remember an overtime game, so to go to sudden death against Arapahoe in my senior year is just priceless," Heritage senior Olivia Annalora said. "This game was so fitting for our two teams. It's almost unbelievable."

Heritage's Liz Datino scored in sudden death to give the Eagles the 15-14 win at Littleton Public Schools Stadium, and they improved to 6-0.

"That felt so amazing," said Datino, who scored five goals in the game, including one in overtime and the winner. "I don't even really remember what happened out there. It was just so nerve- racking, and the intensity was way, way, way up. But we never gave up. Our seniors deserved this, and I'm glad I delivered for them."

The Warriors (5-3), coming off a 20-8 loss to Cherry Creek on March 22, let the Eagles get out to an early lead but stayed close the entire game. The Warriors tied the score with 3:42 remaining in regulation when senior midfielder Adison Rounds scored her sixth goal.

After Heritage's Kerry Keogh scored with 36 seconds remaining, Arapahoe senior Katie Gerhard scored with 13 seconds left to send the game to overtime.

"We took a while to get started, and as soon as we got on the same page, it just started to click," said Gerhard, who scored four goals. "We went back and forth the entire game, so we were excited when we went into overtime, and we thought we maybe had the edge."

The teams played two three-minute periods, and the Eagles jumped ahead with goals from Anna Salemo and Datino before the Warriors bounced back with goals from Stacey Birlson and another from Rounds to send the game to a three-minute sudden death.

"When we were going over the rules about sudden death before the game started, I was hoping it wouldn't come down to this with Heritage," Gerhard said. "But when it did, I was excited to experience this my senior year. It just stinks to lose this game, because it was probably the best game we have ever played."

Heritage 6 6 1 1 1 - 15

Arapahoe 5 7 0 2 0 - 14

Goals-Assists - H, Liz Datino 5-1, Olivia Annalora 5-2, Anna Salemo 3-0, Kerry Keogh 1-0, Maddie Hosack 1-0. A, Adison Rounds 7-2, Katie Gerhard 4-0, Kate Spring 2-1, Stacy Birlson 1-1.

Shots on goal - H, 9-7-1-1-1 - 19. A, 10-13-0-2-0 - 25. Goalie saves - H, Anna Wallingford 5-6-0-0-0 - 11. A, Jen Weidner 3-1-0- 0-0 - 4.

Comments

  • April 3, 2008

    8:52 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    mj writes:

    Congratulations to the Heritage-Littleton Girls' Lacrosse team! You are having a fantastic season! This team is a co-op between the Heritage High School Eagles and the Littleton High School Lions. As a staff member at LHS I would like to point out that Liz Datino is a student at LHS and we are very proud of her! Go H-L Lacrosse!