The St. Anthony's girls lacrosse team had an ominous start to their afternoon after their bus broke down en route to Uniondale, delaying the start of their scheduled match against Kellenberg nearly an hour.

But that was just the start of their troubles. Kellenberg rallied from a 13-7 deficit with nine minutes remaining and the Friars finished the day with a 14-14 tie in Nassau-Suffolk CHSAA play.

St. Anthony's dominated this game for the first forty minutes before collapsing down the stretch. They stormed out of the gate, scoring three goals in the first five minutes and built an 8-5 lead heading into halftime.

The offense came from all over the field. Senior midfielder Lauren Madden and attack Meghan Brady both poured in two first half goals.

On the other end of the field, tight defense and strong goaltending kept the Firebirds off the board. Junior goalie Danielle Pawliw recorded five first half saves (10 on the day) and looked masterful in the net.

Madden scored her third goal of the game with 12:52 remaining, giving the Friars a seemingly insurmountable 13-7 lead.

But the defense that gave up just seven goals in the first forty minutes of play was suddenly powerless to stop the Kellenberg combo of Lauren Ehrhardt and Amanda Baumann. The two Firebirds combined for all seven of Kellenberg's goals down the stretch, including the game-tying put-in by Ehrhardt with just 25 seconds remaining.

The Friars girls have opened their season with impressive wins over Holy Trinity, Cold Spring Harbor and Ward Melville. Their lone loss to Moorestown, a top ranked team, was a 11-10 effort. This team is built to win and an obvious contender, so look for The St. Anthony's girls lacrosse team to bounce back this Friday at Massapequa.