AGAWAM — The best game the Northampton girls lacrosse team played all season ended in overtime with the yellow ball nestled behind goalie Bridget Harrington in the Blue Devils’ net.
Agawam’s Christie Mirski won the draw to open the extra period and worked her way to the front of the net.
Harrington stopped seven shots in the game prior, including several point-blank stops, but couldn’t make it eight.
The third-seeded Brownies celebrated a 9-8 overtime victory Friday in the quarterfinals of the Central/Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament.
Northampton (12-8) ended the first year of the Emily Hopkins era with a third loss to Agawam in 2016.
The Blue Devils fell 8-7 on April 28 and 13-6 on May 12.
“I really think that this was our best game of the season,” Hopkins said. “Except that we lost, it was the best way to end our season.”
The Blue Devils held an 8-7 lead with 15 minutes, 38 seconds left after Hannah Sledzieski scored.
They held that edge as played went back and forth for the next 13 minutes until a turnover gave the ball back to Agawam with 2:30 left.
The Brownies missed their initial attempt but eventually tied the game with 2:01 to go after a timeout.
“I called that timeout to get them to settle and regroup,” Agawam coach Carla Lemnah-Warner said. “They were able to do that.”
Despite leading for most of the game, Northampton was never up by more than two goals.
Northampton led 4-2 with 13:21 left in the first half on a tally from Yinyin Doherty-Weinraub, but Agawam scored the next two to tie it back up. The Brownies also led at 5-4, 6-5 and 7-6.
Abbie Baldwin scored the first three goals for the Blue Devils and finished with four goals and an assist.
“It just naturally came to my stick, and I made the best of those opportunities,” Baldwin said.
Northampton needed someone to find the net with leading scorer Megan McCarthy fighting consistent double and triple teams.
She still finished with a goal and two assists but mostly kept the ball moving in Northampton’s offense.
“It was kind of expected. I feel like it didn’t really matter to our game because we have six other players on offense that are very skilled and also can score,” McCarthy said. “That’s something that’s different from a lot of other teams. We got a lot of draws and dumps out of it.”
Baldwin’s three early goals built the Blue Devils a 3-1 lead with 18:10 until halftime.
That flipped how the teams began their May meeting, a 6-1 Agawam run.
“Honestly they bring out the best in us,” Hopkins said. “I think it’s a great rivalry that gets the girls focused and dialed in like they’re not against some other teams.”
But the Blue Devils will have to wait until next year to try and turn that attention and fire into a win.
They’ll do so without seniors Fiona D’Ambrosia, Grace Goodwin-Boyd, Ursa Heidinger, Sophie Melcher, Harrington, Morgan Moffett, Victoria Miller, Hannah Sledzieski, Summer Zackaricz, Allie Zadworny and Kaitlyn Thibault, who played their final game for Northampton.
But the Blue Devils bring back their top two scorers in Baldwin and McCarthy.
“I think that’ll be huge,” Hopkins said. “We’re going to miss all of the seniors, too, but we have enough of the underclassmen that are just as big contributors that I don’t think it should be a huge problem.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.