North Sets NCAA Goals Record, BC Advances to Elite Eight With Denver Win
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Publisher
Charlotte North and Rachel Hall are longtime roommates. They each transferred to Boston College ahead of the 2020 season. They're both ambassadors of an East Coast-dominated sport from the state of Texas, and their athleticism is conducive to playing styles that draw parallels to the men's game.
Aside from their positions, North—a first-team All-American attacker—and Hall—a resilient goalie—are hard to separate.
Even in the way in which they block out the noise.
North didn't know she broke the NCAA's career goals record Sunday afternoon during BC's 13-8 second-round NCAA Tournament victory over Denver. When the Tewaaraton Award finalist acknowledged the accomplishment postgame, she dished out the credit to her teammates, as she so often does.
"It's a whole team-wide thing," North said. "Goals don't come without everyone else around me just doing their job and them making my job easy."
Likewise, Hall—who stopped eight of Denver's 16 shots on cage—praised her backline, including junior Sophia Taglich, who was filling in for injured first-team All-ACC defender Sydney Scales. As for North's feat, Hall wasn't aware. Except she wasn't surprised, either.
"She's the best," Hall said of North. "We've talked about all this stuff. And she's talked about all of it and kind of spoken it into existence. ... It's so cool to see her get exactly what she wants."
North's four goals paced the No. 3 Eagles (17-3) at a packed Newton Lacrosse Field. And Hall, who has had a roller coaster senior season, outclassed Denver goalie Emelia Bohi, at times bailing out a BC offense that committed a season-high 22 turnovers.
It didn't take long for North to surpass former Stony Brook star Courtney Murphy and become the sport's all-time goals leader. Denver (18-3), which entered with the fifth-best scoring defense in the country, committed 30 fouls. The Pioneers' first led to a heat-seeking free-position shot from North that whizzed past Bohi.
Second nationally in caused turnovers per game, Denver lived up to its reputation with 12 Sunday. But, early in the opening frame, BC gave the Pioneers a taste of their own medicine. Temple grad transfer Courtney Taylor jumped a passing lane for an interception and led the break, setting the stage for North's second goal of the day.
Less than a minute later, Denver's Bea Behrins—who recorded a team-high five points—mirrored Taylor's interception, picking off a Taglich pass at midfield and going the distance for a 2-v-1 goal.
It was Denver's lone scoring play of the opening period. Caitlynn Mossman restored BC's two-goal advantage with the first of her three strikes. Still, even with the lead, BC needed to adjust. The turnover-prone Eagles weren't flowing offensively.
"I think we were just trying to stretch them out a little bit and be a little bit more patient because it's very aggressive," BC head coach Acacia Walker-Weinstein said of Denver's defense. "We just needed to stay composed and wait for the easy layups because they open up if you wait."
Eventually, after Kayla DeRose and Sloane Kipp pulled the Pioneers within one, BC began to click offensively. The Eagles ended the period on a 4-2 run, finishing the quarter with five goals. Jenn Medjid got on the board after her 48-game scoring streak ended last week in the ACC Championship. Then North scored her third goal following a wraparound and backpedal. Mossman scored at the cage's doorstep.
To cap off the surge, Medjid teed up a perfectly-placed alley-oop for middie Kayla Martello. The breakout sophomore bounced a quick-stick finish through the legs of backup Denver goalie Victoria Macres, who played the final 7:35 of the first half. Neither Macres or Bohi made a save all afternoon.
Because of Behrins and Kipp, it was an 8-5 game at intermission. Kipp scored her second goal of the afternoon after faking a behind-the-back finish and beating Hall just outside the crease.
The Pioneers wouldn't find the back of the net again for more than 20 minutes. BC's defense was on lockdown throughout the third quarter. The Eagles shutout Denver that period, despite losing all three draw controls and 5-of-8 ground balls. They even committed six turnovers in the frame.
Hall stood on her head in net, sliding, sprawling and using her body to stop all four of the Pioneers' shots on cage.
"It's coming down to the wire," Hall said. "We want to play as many games as we can together, and whatever I can do to kind of get my team where we want to be. That's what I want to do."
Everything went BC's way in the third quarter, including a goal ruling on a Medjid shot that didn't actually sneak by the nearside pipe. Instead, it landed on the outside part of the net. Nevertheless, without replay, the referees congregated and called it a goal.
The Denver sideline roared in disbelief.
When the final quarter rolled around, the Eagles had a 10-5 lead. Twice, Denver cut its deficit to three goals, but that's as close as the Pioneers got to knotting things up.
The Canadian pairing of Lauren Black and Raegan Wilson scored Denver's first two goals of the period. Then Mossman halted their momentum by bouncing in a shot inside the eight-meter arc while falling to the turf.
North clinched the victory in the circle. Following Behrins' final goal, North won the ensuing draw and, shortly thereafter, used a hesitation move to get Bohi out of position. From there, she went top-left corner for the easy goal.
Two more BC draws, one last Medjid goal, and the Eagles were on to their fifth straight Elite Eight.
They'll play Loyola for a chance to return to the Final Four and defend their national title.
That's up ahead. At the moment, Walker-Weinstein has her team focused on the now.
"I will never take this for granted," she said. "I told the girls, I'm like, 'This is an amazing thing going to the Elite Eight.'
"We're one step further."
