Trailing 5-2 after the first 25 minutes against Liberty on Monday, the Northampton girls lacrosse team was staring an 0-7 start to their 2023 season square in the face. Even a quick goal by Ella Steirer to start the second half did not appear to reverse the K-Kids’ fortunes as the Hurricanes answered back within a minute and tacked on another goal 6 minutes later to make the score the 7-3.

The remarkable comeback started with 13:05 left in the contest when a bouncing forehand shot by Steirer found the net to the left of the Liberty keeper.

Then Brianna Gora notched a quick hat trick, scoring three goals in a matter of two and half minutes, to even the game at 7.

The Hurricanes called a timeout to try to stem the tide, but picked up a yellow card giving the Kids’ a 1 player advantage for two minutes. Northampton cashed in on the opportunity when Steirer and Gora surrounded the Liberty goalie, who had wandered upfield with the ball, and forced a turnover.

Steirer described what came next, “The girl dropped the ball and I picked it up. I turned around thinking there was defender there and it’s actually the goalie. I thought, ‘Oh wow, there’s no one in the goal!’, and just turned and whipped it. It was like, ‘Please go in the cage.’ I was outside of the 12 (meter line). I was far out and didn’t realize where I was.”

The goal, Steirer’s fifth of the game, gave the K-Kids’ their first lead, 8-7 and when Kylie McFetridge added an insurance goal with 1:57 remaining it looked Northampton’s first win was in the bag. However, the Hurricanes scored with 1:17 left and had a shot on goal as time expired that went barely wide.

An elated Gora shared her thoughts on the win, “It’s exciting. I feel like we did work really hard this season. We’ve had a lot of ups and downs with our team being a bunch of new girls. It does feel nice to finally get what we’ve been working for. We can only go up from here.”

Head coach Carrie Saul echoed her junior midfielder’s sentiments, “There’s 9 freshmen out of 21 girls. So we definitely have a new team sprinkled with some returning players. It’s finally starting to come together. As long as we keep progressing, that’s all I can ask for.”

Through 7 games, the Kids’ statistical leaders are: Steirer (21 goals), Gora (13 goals, 2 assists), Lauren Reznick (7 g, 4 a), Kadee Schrader (1 g, 1 a, and 16 saves as GK), Izzy Feddor 70 saves, Lily Yusko, Grace Roberts, Samantha Mercado, Maggie Woolslayer, and McFetridge, all with 1 goal.