Still grieving teammate's death, Whitman-Hanson girls lacrosse advances in playoffs

WHITMAN – At the end of an unbearably sad week, the Whitman-Hanson High girls lacrosse team found something, however small, to feel good about.

A playoff win might not mean all that much, given the depth of the Panthers' grief, but they did muster a muted celebration following Saturday night's 15-6 conquest of Amherst-Pelham Regional in the Division 2 preliminary round.

It was the first time the players had really picked up their sticks since getting blindsided by the news that JV player Ava Patete had been struck and killed by an MBTA Commuter Rail train in town on Tuesday night. Understandably, the news left the Panthers stunned and heartbroken. Patete, a sophomore, was the starting goalie on the girls soccer team in the fall.

More:Whitman-Hanson high school student struck, killed by Commuter Rail train

The players took the field with "#0" (Patete's number in soccer) printed in marker on their right legs and "AP" written on their left legs. They also wore ribbons in their hair to salute their teammate.

"It was very tough," coach AC Decker said. "It was a really challenging week for them since Tuesday. But they brought all their heart out today and left it all out on the field, where they needed to be. Ava was on JV, but the relationships with all the kids (were strong). Some of her best friends were on varsity and JV. There's a huge overlap with the soccer program and the lacrosse program. So it really hit our team and the school as a whole pretty hard."

More:These 70 South Shore high school athletes are ready to star in the MIAA state tournament

Amherst-Pelham's captains presented flowers to Whitman-Hanson's captains pregame. Before the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner," athletic director Bob Rodgers, as the public-address announcer, asked the crowd to observe a moment of silence in the wake of what he called an "unthinkable tragedy."

Rodgers told the crowd that the ribbons that the players and coaches wore were there "to remind us all how important caring and kindness is and as a hope that that will be the legacy Ava leaves with all of us. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this difficult time."

"Overall it was a really hard thing to go through for anyone, especially if you knew her," senior captain Ella Nagle said of the Panthers' emotional journey this week. "She was a really sweet person. I'm still dealing with it. All we can do is just support her, play for her, win for her. Just keep on going forward from there."

"It's been really hard," agreed fellow senior captain Maddy Allen. "We've all been really struggling. But I think playing together really has helped us."

Said junior captain Bailey Kelly: "When we heard the news we were obviously all devastated. It was heartbreaking because a lot of us were very close to Ava. But we just tried coming together and supporting each other. We had a couple of meetings and talked together. Coming out today and playing for her (helped)."

The game itself was a solid result for W-H as Allen (5 goals), Nagle (4 goals) and freshman midfielder Shannon Balfe (3 goals) led the charge offensively. Kelly and sophomores Andrea Mulligan and Lily O'Donnell added one goal each.

Decker said of Allen: "She's the heart and soul (of the team). She always comes prepared. She always gives everything and puts everything out on the field. I don't know that she's had a bad game. She's so consistent."

Junior goalie Liv Godwin was another standout with 11 saves, including a huge point-blank stop against A-P's Zoey Candito early in the second half. The 31st-seeded Panthers (8-11) had raced out to a 7-0 lead, but No. 34 A-P (13-6) scored twice in the final 69 seconds of the first half and got another goal a minute into the second half to slice the deficit to 7-3.

Godwin's stop prevented things from getting any tighter, and Nagle, the program's all-time leading scorer, then sparked a three-goal W-H run that effectively clinched the victory.

"She's a really good goalie," Nagle said of Godwin. "She's always had good games, but today she really went up there and kicked it. That was one of her best games, I would say."

Whitman-Hanson's last playoff win came in 2021, when the Panthers beat Canton in OT in the preliminary round of the Division 1 South tournament under the old playoff format. The MIAA did away with qualifying standards that spring as the world emerged from COVID restrictions, and W-H was 3-10-1 in the regular season.

The Panthers finished 4-13 last spring, so an 8-11 mark (with a playoff victory) is a significant step for the program.

"Being captain it feels great that our program every single year is getting better and better," Kelly said. "I'm even more excited for next year for my senior year with a lot of the girls coming back. I hope we're a lot stronger next year."

W-H started this season 6-2. Even though the Panthers had lost nine of their last 10 regular-season games coming in, three of those defeats had been by one or two goals, and two of the bigger losses had come against powerhouses Hingham and Duxbury.

"Obviously, toward the end of the season we had some harder games," Kelly said. "The beginning of the season we felt great about it. When we started to lose it was hard, but we came together and realized that win or lose we're still a team."

Next up for Whitman-Hanson is a tall task. The Panthers visit No. 2 Wayland (16-4) on Monday at 5 p.m.

"We're just going to go out there and try our hardest," Nagle said. "We're playing for (Patete). That's kind of what we're trying to do here. Even if no one really wants to be out here, we're doing it for her."