Smith’s Seven Goals Slingshot Eagles Back to Final Four

Acacia Walker-Weinstein didn’t like the sport’s switch from two 30-minute periods to four 15-minute quarters this season. The 10th-year Boston College lacrosse head coach had to adapt.

So she took a page out of the GOAT’s book.

Not Cindy Timchal’s or Chris Sailer’s or even Jen Adams’—Bill Belichick’s.

“I’ve sort of been studying a little bit of the football mentality with the quarters and figuring out what I can take from that sport to implement,” Walker-Weinstein said Thursday evening. “I know that the Patriots like to have the momentum going into halftime and the momentum coming out.

“And I think whatever the Patriots do is amazing.”

Walker-Weinstein’s team executed that game plan to perfection during its Elite Eight matchup with No. 6 Loyola. The No. 3 Eagles scored with under 35 seconds left in every period, starting with a Belle Smith free-position laser that hit twine with .05 ticks remaining in the opening frame.

That was the first of Smith’s seven goals, and it jumpstarted a 5-0 run that transformed a 4-4 tie into a 9-4 game. The Greyhounds were playing catch-up the rest of the way and, despite pulling within two goals in the third quarter, didn’t have enough firepower to keep pace with BC.

“I think at the end of every quarter, I was like, ‘Alright, something needs to happen,’ Smith said. “Fortunately, I was in the right place at the right time. But my teammates were just hitting me. And that carried momentum into every quarter.”

Smith ended three of the four quarters with a goal. Even the final frame, when she put the exclamation point on BC’s 20-13 win with six seconds to go as Walker-Weinstein’s Eagles advanced to their fifth straight Final Four.

Loyola (20-2) is known for its man-to-man defense, which entered Thursday having given up the third-fewest goals per game in the country. Unsurprisingly, two-time Patriot League Defender of the Year Katie Detwiler was tasked with faceguarding Charlotte North. Detwiler limited North to four shots and three goals—but one of them was the byproduct of a free-position attempt.

The Eagles (18-3) needed goals to come from other directions, too. They did.

In bunches.

It started with sophomore midfielder Kayla Martello, who used a stop-and-go move to score her first of two consecutive goals. The second was set up by a Mckenna Davis slip pass inside the eight-meter arc.

Before long, Loyola—or, more specifically, Sydni Black—punched back. The sophomore attacker fueled a 3-0 run that saw the Greyhounds erase their deficit and even take the lead. Black bookended the surge with a pair of bouncers. In between, the program's all-time points leader, Livy Rosenzweig, scored a woman-down goal, even though BC defender Melanie Welch was draped over her.

North registered two of her three goals in the span of 1:48. She created enough separation from Detwiler both times, first angling in a low, sidearm shot. Her second was a beauty, using her classic hesitation move from X for a blow-by wraparound and bouncer through Loyola goalie Kaitlyn Larsson's five-hole.

Larsson struggled in net. She gave up double-digit goals for the first time since Loyola's loss to Syracuse in late March and made only two saves. Eventually, for about six and a half minutes in the fourth quarter, she was pulled for backup goalie Lauren Spence.

Throughout the opening frame, though, Loyola went toe-to-toe with BC, regardless. Standout freshman Georgia Latch ripped a shot past Eagles netminder Rachel Hall to knot things up at four goals apiece with 20 seconds left in the quarter.

But, in the nick of time, Smith drew a free-position shot. There were actually just five hundredths of a second left on the clock. That's all she needed to fire a shot from the eight meter into the bottom-right corner of the cage.

It was a different game from that point forward. Just as North Carolina changed the script with a goal right before halftime of this year's ACC Championship, BC pulled off a similar feat from period one to two in Thursday's Elite Eight matchup.

The Eagles scored the first four goals of the second quarter, stretching their lead to five in the process. Catch, pivot, shoot, score. That was the order of operations for Smith, who added two more quick strikes in under a minute of action.

Perhaps more impressive, however, was how dominant BC was on the other end of the field, too. The Eagles ended up losing the draw battle, 24-12, but the play of their backline—which, after a one-game absence, featured Sydney Scales again—was a good enough concession.

BC caused seven turnovers in the first half. Sophomore Hunter Roman was responsible for one of those. The Saint James, New York, native also scooped up two ground balls in the first two quarters. She was everywhere, even leading the break.

"I just think Hunter is sort of trusting how athletic she is now," Walker-Weinstein said. "And it's really fun to watch her trust herself. Because we see it. We know it all the time. We know what it takes to be a really good defender.

"I think now Hunter is starting to process, 'Hey, I am good.' And I think her confidence building is getting her more involved in all those plays."

Roman helped engineer BC's transition scoring, which took off at the end of the second quarter as the Eagles turned a Hall save into a Jenn Medjid goal with impeccable ball movement to give them a 10-5 lead at intermission.

Loyola made its move at the start of the third quarter, a period in which the Greyhounds won 7-of-9 draws. They used a 4-1 run to get within two goals of BC. Chase Boyle capped the scoring spree, first by assisting Jillian Wilson in front of the net and then taking matters into her own hands to make it an 11-9 game.

Luckily for BC, its defense was still at its best. The Eagles won 5-of-6 ground balls in the frame, not to mention that they caused another three turnovers.

The turning point of the quarter was when Loyola—only down two—nearly made a defensive stand, except a Ellie Rinehart shooting space foul with a second on the shot clock gifted Ryan Smith a free-position attempt. Even though Larsson saved that, Belle Smith scored on the reset—and again before the quarter expired. Add a Medjid goal in between, and you have a 3-0 Eagles run that restored their comfortable lead.

The final frame was the highest-scoring period of the game. It was also pretty back and forth. The problem was, Loyola needed more than "back and forth" to get even.

The teams combined for 10 goals in the last 15 minutes of play. Both had a defender find the back of the net as well. BC's Hollie Scheicher scored on a free-position attempt. And Loyola's Detwiler converted a draw control victory into a goal in the span of eight seconds for her second scoring play of the NCAA Tournament.

BC got the last laugh with a fake-and-take free-position score by North and one last goal by Smith.

"We always say best lacrosse in May," Smith said. "Fortunately, today, I think we showed that played really well as a team. That's what it's all about."

Walker-Weinstein's Eagles are headed back to the national semifinals, building a dynasty not so dissimilar to that of Belichick's Patriots.

BC needs a few more titles to make the comparison more accurate. Repeating as champions next weekend is one way to start.