Clarkston on fire in cooling Dragons for regional win
THREADING THE NEEDLE: Clarkston's Sage Beauregard ties to manuever around the defense of Lake Orion's Ronnie Booth (No. 8) and Maddie Barry (No. 28) during Thursday's regional quarterfinal. Staff Photo | Dan Stickradt
BY DAN STICKRADT
SENIOR EDITOR
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
LAKE ORION — Beating a team by a substantial margin and having to play them again two weeks later can definitely leave a team in a position for letdown.
Clarkston did not fall into such a trap in its Division 1 regional quarterfinal girls lacrosse match at Lake Orion Thursday.
The Wolves, who are ranked 18th overall in the state combining all divisions, improved to 12-3-0 on the season by ousting the regional host Dragons by 15-5 margin. Clarkston had defeated Lake Orion 19-3 two weeks earlier when it clinched the schools’ first OAA White Division championship.
“We talked about not having a letdown,” said Clarkston coach Stephanie Dellinger. “We talked about going out and playing hard right from the get-go. We came out on fire and played hard.
“I told them it’s hard to beat a team more than once in a season, especially (two weeks) later,” added Dellinger. “They were ready to play the practices the week before have been very good. We came out intense and built a nice lead (at the half).”
Lauren Sharkey scored three of the first five goals for Clarkston and finished the game with four goals and five assists. Stephanie Dellinger, the coach’s daughter, scored three times in the first half and finished with five goals and an assist to pace the Wolves.
Lake Orion changed up some defensive tactics and was far more aggressive in the rematch. The Dragons (9-7-1) simply could not stop the Wolves’ high-powered offense.
The Wolves were slowed for the first seven minutes, when they led only 1-0. After that points, Clarkston outscored Lake Orion 7-1 to build an 8-1 lead at the half.
Played under temperatures in the low 40s with a driving rain, Clarkston continued to pile it on in the second half, eventually settled for a 10-gaol win to advance to Tuesday’s second round, where it will meet the winner of the Brighton-Waterford United contest.
Brighton was the state runner-up last season.
Lake Orion, in a rebuilding campaign, still finished with the same number of wins as last season but didn’t have enough to run with another state-ranked team.
“I felt like we played better than we did the last time we played them,” said Lake Orion coach Bill Booth. “But they are a very good team. They have four very good (scorers), their goalie’s pretty good. We just hoped to be more competitive this time. We did a better job on the draw. Last time we couldn’t win a draw and we did a better job this time. We just lost to a very good team.”
Paige Hammerl had a goal and an assist, while Jessica Smude, Ronnie Booth, Ashley Dakki and Mallory DeMott also scored for Lake Orion.
Danielle Dunn added a hat trick for Clarkston. Brittney James scored twice and Erin Gray also scored the the Wolves, who have already set a school record for wins.
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Category: Clarkston, High School, High School (M-Z), Lake Orion, Prep Wraps
