St. Paul's School for Girls saved its best lacrosse for last against Catonsville High School Saturday afternoon at Catonsville.
The Gators scored four unanswered goals in the final 10 minutes to rally past the Comets for a 14-12 victory as senior attacker Sara Moeller and junior midfielder Liza Liotta each finished with a hat trick.
The win provided St. Paul's with a boost. The Gators were coming off a 15-11 loss to McDonogh in which the Gators trailed by only a goal late to a team that has won 122 consecutive games.
"It was really important to bounce back after the tough loss to McDonogh," St. Paul's coach Ali Jacobs said. "We made the plays that we needed to when it really counted. We had a couple of clutch stops on defense and a couple of clutch goals."
St. Paul's came alive late with a 4-0 run against Catonsville, which received three-goal performances from Lauren McDonald and Kelsey Scott.
Catonsville (4-3) went ahead 12-10 with 9:39 remaining when McDonald, senior attacker, picked up a loose ball and scored her second straight goal.
But over the next 1:36, the Gators received back-to-back goals from Moeller and Ashly McGovern to tie it at 12-12.
Paige Aldave gave St. Paul's its first lead, 13-12, with 6:49 remaining, scoring on a feed from Moeller.
Lauren Archer made a nice save on Catonsville's Trinity McPherson's shot with 4:12 left. It was the Comets' last shot.
Jacobs called a timeout 10 seconds later.
"I told the girls, 'It only takes one more goal than the other team to win,'" the coach said. "We definitely wanted to maintain that possession and kill some time."
St. Paul's (4-5) did just that and held on to the ball for three minutes until Liotta saw an opening in Catonsville's defense and rushed toward the goal and finished the scoring on a high shot.
Catonsville had led for more than 30 minutes, including about 18 in the first half.
"It was never a lead of more than one or two goals," Catonsville coach Cantey Evans said. "St. Paul's is a just team when you put them away, you really have to put them away. My team really hustled. It wasn't like to we stopped playing. We gave 100 percent the whole time. You can't ask for more than that."
Catonsville goalie Savannah Cheuvront made eight saves. The Comets' Brittany Stevens had two goals. Teammates Anderson Gill, Rory Black, McPherson and Andrea McTaggart had one each.
Kerri Clayton contributed two goals for St. Paul's, and Sarah Ayer, Jordan Rosa, Maggie Root, Julia Braig, Ashlyn McGovern and Aldave added one apiece.
Archer and Klia Trintis combined to make 12 saves.