The St. Francis girls lacrosse team rallied from an eight-goal deficit to pull out a remarkable 16-15 win in double overtime over Palo Alto in the championship match of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League playoffs in Burlingame Saturday afternoon.
The Vikings (18-4) were the regular season champs and defeated St. Francis twice during the regular season, but the Lancers (16-4) came back from a 9-1 early deficit and won even after trailing 13-7 with just 8:39 left in regulation.
St. Francis scored the tying goal with 20 seconds to play in regulation and claimed the victory in the second overtime on a sudden-death goal by Beth Ruder. Nina Kelty had four goals and two assists for the Vikings and Charlotte Biffar added three goals and an assist.
Brielle Mariucci, daughter of former San Francisco 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci, was also instrumental in the victory for the Lancers along with UConn-bound Jacqueline Jordan and fellow senior co-captain Maile Jones. The championship was the third in a row for St. Francis.
