BRIGHTON — Ryan Skomial was one of the best high school girls lacrosse players to come out of Michigan, and even she doesn’t envy anyone trying to stop Brighton freshman Quinn Holdridge.
“I would not want to be picking her up in the midfield,” said Skomial, who scored 276 goals for Hartland from 2010-13 before becoming the Eagles’ head coach last season.
“If she gets it off the draw, she’s so fast and she’s very strong and very powerful. She’s a really hard pickup for even the best defenders. That’s something every team is going to have to figure out.”
Hartland has three more years to figure out a way to at least limit Brighton’s speedy ninth-grader. It won’t get easier, as Holdridge will presumably get even better.
Playing in her first rivalry game against Hartland, Holdridge scored four goals and two assists in Brighton’s 11-5 victory on Wednesday, May 6. The Bulldogs clinched the KLAA West championship.
Much of Holdridge’s production comes when she wins and controls a draw, then sprints down the field. If she doesn’t get all the way to the net before defenders can shut off her lane, she ends up drawing a foul and getting a shot from free position.
Her wheels have also been on display on the track this spring. Her 100-meter time of 13.11 seconds ranks fifth in Livingston County and her 27.25 time in the 200 is sixth, even though she’s raced each event only twice.
Holdridge came out for track one day before Brighton’s first meet. The next day, she won the 200 and was second in the 100 against Howell. As the season has gone along, she’s been integrated into Brighton’s sprint relay teams.
“I feel like I’m doing pretty much equal in both,” Holdridge said. “I’m trying to do more lacrosse, because it’s my main sport.”
Holdridge is the centerpiece of a Brighton freshman class that could be one of the best to come through the county. There are six ninth-graders on the Bulldogs’ roster.
Brighton coach Ashton Peters didn’t know much about Holdridge, who has 29 goals and 22 assists in 13 games, before this season.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” Peters said. “Draw possession wins games. Draws are what Quinn does phenomenally well. Her speed off that draw allows us to get fast breaks a lot or allows our girls to set up with high-intensity play due to her speed. It’s kind of changed the speed of our field play.”
The game featured two teams who have combined to reach seven consecutive state Division 1 championship games. Brighton went to six in a row, winning the last three, before its run ended last season. Hartland made the title game last season. Both teams lost to South Lyon.
Hartland is 8-5, winning six in a row before losing to Brighton.
“We’re trying to manage the balance of not comparing ourselves always to the team of last year, because we’re not the team of last year, but balancing that with the knowledge we can get there,” Skomial said. “Going to that states game last year was good validation for the girls that they did deserve to be there. They’ve gone to the semis for a decade straight. It was good to break that semifinal curse.”
Hartland took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Amanda Norton with 6:34 left in the first quarter and was within 3-2 in the second quarter when Brighton scored four straight goals. Norton’s second goal cut the lead to 7-4 with 10:45 left in the game, but three consecutive goals by the Bulldogs put the game out of reach.
Kelly McKaig scored two goals, Mia Balogh and Maggie Burchfield had one goal and one assist each, and Sophie Dockham, Lauren Simms and Isabella Orton had one goal for Brighton.
Freshman Madelyn Jenkins had two goals and Reese Tomyn one for Hartland.
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@livingstondaily.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton girls lacrosse freshman shows track speed against Hartland
Reporting by Bill Khan, Livingston Daily / Livingston Daily
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