Wildcats wallop Griffins in lacrosse
OCALA - The Forest High School girls lacrosse team made short work of Lake Mary Prep as sophomore Emma Gamboa scored six goals and Madi Chandler added five to lead the Wildcats to a 21-6 rout of the Griffins at Mikey Kelly Stadium on Wednesday.
The lopsided victory improved Forest to 5-3 on the season.
"The girls played hard and the scoreboard showed that today," said Wildcats head coach John Golden. "We were a little too aggressive in the first half and got four yellow cards so we were a player down for the second half. We made a couple of adjustments defensively and the girls did a good job on the draw. It's great when you work hard in practice and get to demonstrate it in a game like this."
Forest, which is the only high school in Marion County that competes in lacrosse, started quickly as Chandler, a talented and speedy sophomore, netted three goals, junior Nicole Souza found the back of the net and Gamboa tallied a pair of goals to give the Wildcats a 6-0 lead with 14:44 left in the first half.
Lake Mary Prep (Orlando) got on the scoreboard as senior Kate Dawson scored from 5 yards out to make it 6-1. The Griffins had several good scoring chances, but Forest junior goalie Raelyn Boutwell had four saves in the first half to keep the Wildcats comfortably ahead.
Forest junior Ashlyn Mill found the range from just outside the goal, Chandler broke through the Lake Mary Prep defense for another score and Gamboa drilled a pair of shots home as the Wildcats enjoyed a 12-3 lead at the half.
Despite being a player down for the second half because of the four first-half fouls, Forest dominated the draw and the time of possession and extended its lead as Mill scored, Gamboa rifled a shot home and Souza found an opening to make it 15-3.
Lake Mary, which dropped to 2-4 overall, scored a pair of goals as Dawson showed good speed and tenacity by finding the back of the net for the Griffins to make it 19-5 with 8:45 remaining in the game.
Forest kept the pressure on and netted a pair of goals for the final margin of victory. Junior goalie Macie Spohn was solid with four saves in the second half for the Wildcats.
Forest, which has to travel a great deal to find games, is back in action on Friday with a road game at Leesburg High.
"Traveling can be difficult because we have to go to Alachua County, Jacksonville and schools near Orlando to play," coach Golden said. "We try not to go more than an hour and half away for our games."
Forest, which has no seniors, is in Class 2A-District 2, which is a very competitive district with defending champion Eastside High (Gainesville) being the team to beat again this season.
"We lost to Eastside on Monday," coach Golden said. "We'll see them again in the district tournament and hopefully we can turn that around and have a better performance."