BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- Rocky River closed conference play with its first Northern Ohio Lacrosse League loss since March 23, as the Pirates were defeated by the Brunswick Blue Devils, 9-7, on Monday night.

Losing its third straight game overall, Rocky River (10-5, 7-2 NOLL) saw a run of seven circuit wins in a row come to a halt in the road test at Brunswick. The loss marked River's first in NOLL play since losing, 16-4, to Avon on March 23.

The River offense was led by a four-goal performance from Olivia Konopka. The Pirate defense got a strong effort from Madeline Lundin, but River was unable to hold onto early 2-0 and 3-2 leads.

From 23:30 to 9:01 of the opening half, the host Devils outscored the Pirates, 5-1. The Maroon & White went into halftime trailing, 7-4. The second half was a hard-fought exchange with River unable to land a netfinder until the 16:11 mark when Konopka scored her third of the contest. A staunch River defense allowed just one Brunswick score in the final 20 minutes, but the Devils defense answered in kind to preserve the two-goal victory.

In addition to Konopka, Ella Nejad (goal, assist) and Blair Willse (goal, assist) also logged multi-point games for the Maroon & White. Konopka's fourth goal of the night marked her 40th of the season.

The team's competition in the 2021 inaugural season of NOLL play marked the program's first action in a conference. River had previously competed as an independent.

The Pirates are scheduled to play a road game in Rocky River on Tuesday. The Double-R is slated to take on Magnificat at 5 p.m.


by Skip Snow

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