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Local Roundup: Bagnall notches 150th career goal; Lehman tops Redeemer

SHICKSHINNY &#8212; The bouquets of flowers came right at the beginning for some graduating players.Some surprise presents came at the end for the coach.In between, though, a girl who had only a small role in either ceremony played the biggest part in guaranteeing both celebrations went smoothly.Junior Milana Straub scored three goals within an eight minute stretch of the first half Monday, giving the Northwest Rangers a Senior Night to remember and helping Rangers coach Ashley Lawson pin down her 100th career victory as a field hockey head coach with a 10-0 tagging of Tunkhannock at Northwest&#8217;s Lewis and Miller Stadium.&#8220;Unbelievable,&#8221; Lawson said of her career milestone. &#8220;I can&#8217;t believe it fell on Senior Night. I haven&#8217;t counted, but this group of seniors have to have about half of the (100) wins. It&#8217;s kind of perfect it was on a night to honor them that I got it.&#8221;Rangers senior and their all-time leading scorer Sydney Franchella started the scoring, naturally, and also finished with a hat trick and that first goal came off an assist from fellow senior Ariana Walker &#8212; who wound up with four assists and a goal to take away with her flowers.&#8220;It means a lot to us &#8212; to all of us,&#8221; Walker said. &#8220;We&#8217;re especially happy to have a 100th win for our coach. She&#8217;s an amazing teacher. She&#8217;s super-proud of us for how far we&#8217;ve come.&#8221;So are the Rangers, who moved a step closer to solidifying their second straight WVC Division 2 title, which they can solidify by winning at second-place Lackawanna Trail in a 4:15 p.m. game today.And so was Straub, who seemed every bit as inspired by the magnitude of the moment as her senior teammates.&#8220;She was very excited about this game,&#8221; Lawson said. &#8220;She was, I think, wanting to do it for the seniors.&#8221;So little more than nine minutes after Franchella struck the first blow, Straub gave Northwest some breathing room by rocketing home a goal. Then she did it again, and again.Her personal scoring spree &#8212; a hat trick that she wrapped up off the second assist from Walker &#8212; built Northwest&#8217;s lead to 4-0 and put the game on brink of the sportsmanship rule. Then Lauren Okuniewski triggered the running clock by giving the Rangers a 5-0 lead with 8:01 to play in the opening half.&#8220;It means everything to us,&#8221; Straub said. &#8220;We care about each other so much. We all really come out and work so hard, we all work together. These (senior) girls are like my family. Everything we do is for each other.&#8221;Those Senior Night ceremonies are planned to honor graduating team members in their final regular season home game, but Northwest has at least one more game at Lewis and Miller left.Because of an earlier postponement, the Rangers will face Benton in a non-league game at home Thursday, and they&#8217;re battling Holy Redeemer while trying to hold onto the No. 4 seed and a home game for the eight-team District 2 Class A quarterfinals next week.A win over Trail would surely help.Northwest is 12-1 at the top of the WVC Division 2 standings and holds a one-game lead over 11-2 Lackawanna Trail as the two square off for their third and final regular season meeting today after splitting the first two games of their season series.&#8221;I think we are all really proud,&#8221; Walker said. &#8220;We&#8217;re all looking forward to going to Lackawanna Trail.&#8221;First, though, Lawson took a look back.Her career achievement started during her two years coaching Benton, and after serving as a Northwest assistant for four years, she&#8217;s spent the last seven turning the Rangers into a regular District 2 playoff participant. Northwest rewarded her milestone with flowers, and a banner signed by the entire current Rangers team.&#8220;It&#8217;s going on the wall. We&#8217;re just happy that it will be in the house somewhere,&#8221; Lawson said. &#8220;I knew I was close, I had 88 (wins) at the beginning of the season. These seniors have won so much. I got it on their night, we can celebrate together.&#8220;Perfect timing.&#8221;Lackawanna Trail 4, Berwick 0Belle Coleman scored twice in the first half and the Lions improved to 11-2 in league play and set up a showdown with Northwest today at Trail in the hunt for the WVC Division 2 title.Trail is a game behind 12-1 Northwest in the championship race and both have one league game remaining after today.Abby Fahey and Cat Litwin scored insurance goals in the second half for the Lions and Bella Jagoe registered an assist on Coleman&#8217;s second goal.Jackie Nevel made six saves for Berwick.Northwest 10, Tunkhannock 0Tunkhannock`0`0 &#8212; 0Northwest`7`3 &#8212; 10First half &#8212; 1. NW, Sydney Franchella (Ariana Walker), 28:44; 2. NW, Milana Straub, 19:36; 3. NW, Straub, 15:55; 4. NW, Straub (Walker), 12:02; 5. NW, Lauren Okuniewski (Irelyn Kishbaugh), 8:01; 6. NW, Morgan Gregory (Kishbaugh), 5:16; 7. NW, Franchella (Walker), 1:23. Second half &#8212; 8. NW, Walker (Franchella), 27:31; 9. NW, Lillie Spencer, 15:42; 10. NW, Franchella (Walker), 1:41.Shots &#8212; TUN 2; NW 17. Saves &#8212; TUN 7 (Iesha Hartman); NW 2 (Cassidy Gray). Penalty corners &#8212; TUN 6; NW 9.Lackawanna Trail 4, Berwick 0Berwick`0`0 &#8212; 0Lackawanna Trail`2`2 &#8212; 4First half &#8212; 1. LT, Belle Coleman, 23:01; 2. LT, Coleman (Bella Jagoe), 5:21. Second half &#8212; 3. LT, Abby Fahey, 23:25; 4. LT, Cat Litwin, 19:17.Shots &#8212; BER 7; LT 10. Saves &#8212; BER 6 (Jackie Nevel); LT 7 (Lilly Rejrat). Penalty corners &#8212; BER 3; LT 6.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Paul Sokoloskipsokoloski@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div>

FIELD HOCKEY: Ashley Lawson hits coaching milestone in Northwest win