By TIM IRVING
Two minutes into Honeoye Falls-Lima’s game at Rush-Henrietta, the two teams were tied at 1-1.
By halftime, junior Lena Cox had four goals and the Royal Comets had a 10-2 lead on their way to a 16-6 victory.
“We started moving the ball better, we were connecting two and three passes to get our offensive people open on the back side, “ R-H coach Jim DeWald said.
Cox scored the first goal of the game 36 seconds in and Paige Kidd responded for the Cougars (4-4) 1:06 after that.
Cox then scored two goals less than a minute apart and Ally Garrett scored twice, the last one with 21 seconds to play and they had an eight-goal lead.
Sophomore goalie Angelia Oechsle, a standout for the Royal Comets as a freshman, continued to make saves but DeWald likes he whole game.
“Great eyes, she can track the ball, super athletic. She comes out of the goal, she’s picking off passes, her ability to throw the ball to start the clear for us, she’s a great kid.”
HF-L’s leading scorer, Mercyhurst-bound senior Whitley Easton scored her only goal of the game to start the second half.
Avery Roberts, the junior North Carolina commit, scored her second of the game on an 8-meter opportunity to answer that.
Clare Ruf scored the first of her two goals but in transition, Ally Garrett fed her sister, Dani, and the Rush-Henrietta lead was 12-4, the Royal Comets with eight different goal scorers in the game.
“On offense, we want seven girls involved, we want assisted goals, we want to be a team, “ DeWald said. “We wanna make sure that every kid on offense feels like they are a part of the offense and they are a viable option on offense.
Cox capped off her five-goal game to make it a 13-4 lead.
Her performance drew notice on both sides of the ball. HF-L has a tradition of honoring a player on the visiting team after every game.
Here is HF-L junior Elizabeth Smith:
Now 9-0, the Royal Comets have started the toughest part of their schedule with Fairport on Wednesday and Pittsford (5/4), Canandaigua (5/9) and Victor (5/11) still coming up.
“We’re still pretty young,” DeWald said, “But they’re good, they’re tough-nosed kids, they work really hard and they’re coachable.”
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