Correspondent photos / Robert Hayes Boardman senior Zoe Wynn cuts through a pair of Cathedral Prep (Pa.) defenders during an 8-7 comeback victory over the Ramblers on Monday. Wynn scored six of Boardman’s eight goals during the victory.

BOARDMAN — When a program is still building from the ground up, each victory is a noteworthy stepping stone. Boardman’s girl’s lacrosse team is only in its third season competing at the varsity level, but growing the youth system has been a focus for coach Matt Pavone.

With plenty of freshmen on the field, senior leadership stepped up Monday evening, helping guide the Spartans to an 8-7 comeback victory over Cathedral Prep (Pa.).

After finding themselves down 5-2 at halftime, a stellar six-goal outing by senior Zoe Wynn helped fuel Boardman to their second win of the spring.

“Basically, just talking to the kids and saying who wants to actually step up tonight. We’ve been in this position before, now let’s put the gas pedal to the floor and go from there,” Pavone said. “The girls came up with that game plan, they executed what they needed to do well in the second half. In the second half, the defense did clamp down, Ava (Hedrich) did her job in goal like she always does, and she’s going to be missed next year.”

Wynn had both of the Spartans’ first-half goals and quickly found paydirt during the opening moments of the second half to cut the deficit to two goals. After going down 6-3, three of Wynn’s goals came during the final 19:36 of play.

“My favorite shot is the roll around to the right, shoot the bottom low corner, I love just driving in when you see an opening,” Wynn said. “Just driving down the field, I like to use my speed on the field and I find it works better for me than passing it up and waiting for my pass back. I just run up and find my open spot. I love shooting. It’s just the best part of the game, getting those goals, it’s awesome. So, when I see an open shot I take it every time.”

At the 17:40 mark, freshman Lydia Kenney found the back of the net after shooting from about 10 yards away to beat one defender. Boardman (2-9) took its first lead at 7-6 following a goal directly in front of the net by fellow freshman Carley Shevock.

“Typically we’ll have four to five freshmen on offense at one time, so you can tell the freshmen do play a key part in my program right now,” said Pavone.

Moments later, Cathedral Prep’s Adelaide Stark tied the contest back up. A timeout with just under two minutes left allowed the Spartans to set up with possession.

A shooting space foul allowed Wynn an opportunity from the free position and she cashed in to give her team the lead — this time for good.

“I just had to calm down, I heard Ava (Hedrich) yell ‘Zoe, calm down, breathe’, and I was like she’s right. I have to breathe, shoot how I shoot and can’t rush it. Shoot strong and fast and hope it goes in,” said Wynn. “It was like a weight lifted off of my shoulders. I can breathe, it just felt like we had it, I could tell this was it, we won the game.”

Hedrich recorded eight saves in net and limited the Ramblers’ (0-5) opportunities after a strong first half.

For her as a senior, having a come-from-behind victory is the type of thing younger athletes need to experience as they grit their teeth at the varsity level.

“I think it was honestly the energy the girls started picking up. It was sloppy in the beginning, but then they were able to man up on those girls and just push them out because they realized how they were working the roll around the crease, they were able to push them out,” said Hedrich. “It means so much building up this program because Boardman is still relatively young. It just means the world to have to watch themselves give each other confidence to be better and show them what they can have when they’re older because they’ll have a better team when we’re gone and they’re seniors.

“Especially at Boardman we’ve kinda had a tough couple of years, but we’re really pulling it together. The team is growing so much and I can’t wait to watch these girls grow up.”

Freshman Ava Gaps earned six draw controls, along with an assist. Sophomore Natalie White added an assist herself during the winning effort.

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