FOXBOROUGH – The Boston College women’s lacrosse team experienced a crushing fourth-quarter collapse that cost them their crown.
Big Ten champion Northwestern (19-2) scored six unanswered goals in the final frame to eke out a 12-11 victory over defending champion BC in the late semifinal on Friday night at Gillette Stadium.
The Wildcats denied BC its eighth straight trip to the championship game and avenged last season’s 14-13 loss in last year’s title match. Northwestern advanced to its 11th championship game, including eight national titles under head coach Kelly Amonte-Hiller.
BC finished the season at 19-3.
“We knew that Northwestern was going to fight,” BC coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said. “We just had to adjust minute by minute, and I think we did a great job adjusting, but we just didn’t make enough plays.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t slow that momentum, but they are a tough team to stop. I think we just needed to disrupt a little bit of that momentum in the fourth quarter, but we didn’t do that enough.”
BC’s super sniper, Rachael Clark, scored a hat trick with five assists to finish with a single-season record of 106 goals. Attacker Madison Taylor paced the Wildcats with four goals.
Northwestern enjoyed a 19-8 advantage in controlled draws and 6-1 in the fourth quarter. Those two stats tipped the game in the Wildcats’ favor.
Undefeated ACC champion North Carolina (22-0) scored the final 18 goals of the match to obliterate SEC qualifier Florida, 20-4, in the afternoon semifinal. UNC beat Northwestern 15-12 in Evanston, Ill., on March 27, and Amonte-Hiller appreciates her squad’s challenge.
“They are prenominal, and they have weapons on weapons on weapons,” said Hingham native Amonte-Hiller. “They are very explosive in the midfield, and they have a great goaltender and great defensive play.
“It is going to be a really hard test, and we are excited for that test.”
Down 11-6 after three, Northwestern regrouped and opened the fourth with a 6-0 run. The surge began 15 seconds into the frame on a goal by Lucy Munro. Taylor caught BC’s attention when she scored her third to make it 11-8 at 13:30.
Northwestern pinned the Eagles down in their own end for two minutes and made it 11-9 on a goal by Aditi Foster with 8:43 to play. The Wildcats made it a one-goal game on a free-position goal by Taylor with 7:59 on the clock.
The Wildcats tied the game 11-11 on Riley Campbell’s third tally at 7:21. Senior midfielder Sam Smith, Northwestern’s controlled draw specialist, gave the Wildcats their first lead of the second half with 5:26 to play.
“They just wound up making a bit more plays than we did,” Walker-Weinstein said.
Taylor opened the scoring with a trifecta effort. Taylor forced a turnover, transitioned the ball up the field, and scored unassisted to make it 1-0 at 12:37 of the first. Taylor has scored a goal in 45 straight games.
BC’s fourth-quarter turnover led to a 2-0 deficit at 9:06 when Taylor set up attacker Niki Miles with an uncontested laser from 10 feet, her 16th straight match with a goal. Miles made it 3-0 on an unassisted goal at 8:36.
BC got on the board at 6:52 when playmaker McKenna Davis scored the first of her three. Clark scored consecutive unassisted goals to cut the lead to 4-3 with 36.8 seconds to play in the frame.
BC tied the game 4-4 when Davis up Emma LoPinto for a quick hit inside the near post at 13:59 of the second. LoPinto recorded her 45th straight game with a goal while Davis set the BC single-season record with her 76thassist.
BC took its first lead, 6-5, when Davis scored on the power play at 6:56. Cats’ midfielder Emerson Bohlig scored with 9.6 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 7-6 at the half.
“It’s not the outcome we wanted, but I’m proud of everyone on this team,” BC co-captain Shea Baker said.
Both camps clamped down defensively at the start of the second half. BC ended the scoring drought at 6:51 when sophomore attacker Molly Driscoll scored an unassisted goal, her 39th of the season, to give the Eagles an 8-6 lead.
Davis potted her third of the game with 50.9 seconds remaining to give BC an 11-6 lead after three. It was the fourth time this season that the Wildcats went scoreless in a quarter.
