Facing Familiar Foe, Newberry Girls Lacrosse Flexes Newfound Confidence

NEWBERRY — The Newberry High girls lacrosse team beat the Buchholz junior varsity 10-3 on Tuesday. 

Whole New Team

Nearly a month ago, Newberry (6-5) barely beat the Bobcat JV in the final seconds, 5-4. A minute into Tuesday’s action, it was already promising to be a very different game, with Newberry scoring off the fast break.

From the beginning and even at the midway point of the season to now, the last home game, the improvement from the Panthers is stunning. From the ball movement on offense to the control in transition to the caused turnovers on defense, the Panthers were firing on all cylinders.

“They’ve learned to work hard and work together against some tough teams. They really are coming along in terms of field awareness and playing unselfishly as a team,” NHS coach Kendall Nettles said.

Newberry’s confidence is very clearly demonstrated in this clip of a well executed check and ground ball opportunity pic.twitter.com/9KPoHNGZmG

— Morgan Vazquez (@MorganVgata) April 4, 2024

The Bobcats were silent on offense, and, when faced with the Newberry defense, were held scoreless in the first quarter.

On the other hand, the Panthers scored four more times before the end of the quarter, including a beautiful goal off a spin dodge and a shot from an unlikely angle from senior Kennedy Price. 

New Tactics

Despite the deficit, the Bobcats came into the second quarter with energy, clearly wanting to put themselves on the board with several intercepted passes and forced turnovers.

The Bobcats’ Kylie McGinity got the first shot on goal, beating two defenders just for Panthers goalie Shyenne Smith to deny her.

Buchholz settled the ball more and worked to create opportunities, but faced issues with turnovers.

Team Effort

 With 7:46 left in the half, Lula McCullors scored for the Panthers off an assist from Price.

Assists and give-and-go plays were a strength for Newberry. Before the end of the half, McCullors scored again and Smith made four more saves.

At halftime, Newberry was up 7-0. 

 The Panthers came back from the break just as hot, with McCullors scoring on a 1-on-1 break with the Bobcats goalie.

Early in the second half, there were several fouls in the 8-meter resulting in free position shots. On one Buchholz free position Lilani Pringle blocked the shot and on the other one it was another save by Smith. 

Long Time Coming 

 Anniston Sims scored her second goal with 5:55 left in the third quarter for a 9-0 lead.

Two minutes later, McGinity converted to put Buchholz on the board for the first time. The goal lit a fire for Buchholz, which started taking more shots, all, however, going wide.

Newberry responded with an 8-meter goal to make the score 10-1.

Before the end of the third quarter, Hailey Elshire scored for the Bobcats to bring them within 10-2. 

Senior Game Win

Less than 30 seconds into the fourth quarter, Buchholz scored again to make it a 10-3 game.

With intense play on both sides, each team was held scoreless for the rest of the game.

“I just want to tell people that it’s never too late to try something new, and it’s so easy to play for this team, because all these girls and the coaches are encouraging and it makes you want to play and practice hard for them,” Price said.

Last Game

The Panthers play their last game of the regular season starting at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Gainesville Hurricanes.