AMHERST – The Northampton girls lacrosse team hadn’t been in a game like this all year. They hadn’t faced Amherst in three seasons.

But despite two separate five-goal deficits early in the second half, the Blue Devils came all the way back to beat the ‘Canes 12-11 on Monday afternoon. Sophomore attack Kaydence Braman scored with 1 minute, 35 seconds left to give Northampton its first lead since the second quarter, and the Blue Devils hung on to secure the rivalry win.

“I think it teaches a lot, especially for Western Mass. and states,” said Imanni Power-Greene, who scored a game-high six goals for Northampton. “This will help us later in the season when we’re down by a lot just keeping our heads up and knowing that we can come back because we have before.”

After a quiet first 20 minutes where Northampton (7-3) built a 3-1 lead, Amherst (10-2) exploded in the final 3:23 of the first half. The Hurricanes scored five straight goals, including one from senior captain Francesca Sloan with 2.6 seconds left in the half for her 100th career goal. Fellow senior captain Abi Como also notched her 100th draw control of the season.

Amherst roars back from down 3-1 with 5 goals in the final 3:23 of the first half.

Senior captains Abi Como and Francesca Sloan each hit big milestones. Abi with 100 draws this season and Francesca with 100 career goals. pic.twitter.com/rkD07xNec7

— Connor Pignatello (@c_pignatello) May 6, 2024

Amherst scored three more times in the third quarter to open up 8-3 and 9-4 leads. 

But Northampton slowly chipped away. The Blue Devils scored twice at the end of the third quarter and then twice more in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to 9-8. After a Kiko Bhowmik free position goal stretched Amherst’s lead back to two goals, Northampton quickly answered and Power-Greene tallied her sixth goal of the afternoon to tie the game at 10.

“It’s so much different,” Power-Greene said. “When you’re down one, they can keep going, but when it’s 10-10, it’s 0-0 on the scoreboard and I kept telling my teammates that. I think that’s when it really hit that it’s anybody’s game.”

Sloan scored on a free position with 2:38 left to put Amherst back in the lead, but Teagan McDonald and Braman each quickly tallied to give Northampton its first lead since 3-2 and its first big comeback win of the season.

“The last two games that we’ve had moments of being down we’ve actually started to make that shift,” Northampton head coach Kyla Power said. “We’re down and we figure out the mistakes we made and how to not make them, essentially. This was that exact moment.”

Two years ago, in Power’s first season as Northampton’s coach, her team thrived on three-goal deficits. But early in the season, this year’s young team had been more uncertain and hesitant when they went down, Power said. She was excited to see Monday’s game be an example of that trend starting to reverse.

Northampton had some success early on with draw-and-dump and isolation ball, but Amherst caught on and the Blue Devils had to adjust. In the second half, Northampton was more successful going after ground balls and scored the bulk of its goals from action around the crease.

Amherst head coach Andrew MacDougall said the Hurricanes hadn’t been tested like this all season. Amherst plays in the Pioneer League – one step below the Valley League where Northampton plays – and has won eight of its 12 games by double digits. As the season progresses, MacDougall wants to see his team respond better to momentum swings like the one Northampton pulled in the second half.

“Ultimately we need to find a way to channel all the good stuff, put the bad stuff behind us,” MacDougall said. “Because we’re definitely a team that plays better when we’re happy.”

Both coaches called Monday afternoon’s game the most competitive their team has played all year. Power wants to see Northampton’s second-half performance continue into the final two weeks of the regular season and playoffs.

“We haven’t had a game yet this year, where we’ve been down and we rallied big,” Power said. “This was our first one of those games. That feels new for us this season, and exciting.”