By John Breech / STAFF

Since the GHSA first sanctioned girl’s lacrosse as an official high school sport in 2005, only one team has taken home the state title, Milton. For the last four years, the trophy has been nestled in the hallways of Milton High School, no team able to wrestle it away. Last Saturday, there was finally a changing of the guard. Behind three goals from All-American Maddie Fink, county rival Chattahoochee was able to take down the Eagles in a thrilling 9-7 state championship match.

Cougar head coach Jack McIlvain couldn’t have been more thrilled, “We’ve been working for so long,” said McIlvain. “All the hard work that everyone here has put in – the kids, the parents, the coaches— has finally paid off.”

The game was more or less a continuation of a 9-9 tie that the teams played to on March 11.

Milton’s All-State starlet Marissa Hardy started the scoring off for both teams in the championship game only four minutes in when she put a shot past Cougar goalkeeper Lanie Dinardo.

After that however, Chattahoochee took over. The Cougars offense took control of the first half and kept Milton on the defensive. A goal by Chattahoochee’s Danielle Blackard pushed the Cougar lead to 3-1 with six minutes left in the half. However, you don’t get to be a four-time defending state champ by giving up. Milton answered Chattahoochee’s three straight goals with a run of their own. Hardy and teammate Jen Hoffman each punched one through the net to tie the game at three. Hoffman’s goal came with 38 seconds left in the half and it looked like it was going to send the game to halftime all knotted up. But the Cougar’s Victorial Shiman had other ideas. After a shot went off the Milton goal post, Shiman picked up the loose ball and put it through the net with four seconds left in the half to give her teama 4-3 lead.

Even though his team surrendered four first half goals, Milton coach Tim Godby thought his girls did a solid job on defense, “Our defense actually probably played the best game they’ve played all year tonight,” said Godby, who has coached Milton to each of their four state titles. He also pointed out that Milton’s goalie, Bailey Anders, is “a first year player who had never even played lacrosse before and she played out of this world.”

At halftime, McIlvain told his team that he thought the game was there’s to win, “We said we have to keep focused and that if we take care of business we’re going to put the game away,” the coach told his girls at the break. “And that’s what we did. We had to take care of the ball because the team that takes care of the ball is usually going to win the game.”

McIlvain’s speech must have sparked a fire in his girls because Chattahoochee lit up the scoreboard to start the third period. Thanks to two goals from Fink and a goal from Erin Flagg, Chattahoochee was able to extend their lead to 7-3 in the first four minutes of the half.

Milton would cut the lead to 7-6 thanks to goals from Hardy and Camden Long, but Chattahoochee had answers for each of the Eagles scores. When Hailey Lindley put the Cougars up 9-6 with four minutes to go in the game, the gigantic Cougar travel contingent began to go crazy in anticipation of winning Hooch’s first state title of the school year.

McIlvain thought his goalie played a great game, “Best game of the year,” he said of Dinardo. “As an athlete, you  want to have [your best game] during the biggest game of the season and she stepped up. She made some great saves and you have to have those if you’re going win a game like this. She was fantastic.”

For Milton, Godby was already thinking about five state titles in six years, “Nobody gave us a shot this year, we lost nine starters; three All-Americans,” he said, before warning his good friend McIlvain, “Tell [Chattahoochee] to enjoy that title, because we’ll be coming back for it next year.”