Even in defeat, the Cranston West girls’ lacrosse team should come away from Monday’s game against Mt. Hope feeling good about itself heading towards the final stretch of the regular season.

The Falcons gave the undefeated Huskies their closest game of the season, falling just shy of pulling off the upset, 10-8.

West got a game-high six goals from sophomore attack Jolie Rouleau, as it went into the break down two, 6-4, before giving Mt. Hope all it could handle after halftime, playing the division frontrunners to a 4-4 tie following the break.

Although West (1-8) couldn’t break through and grab that signature win, the result should infuse some confidence into the Falcons going forward.

“We’ve been struggling this season,” West head coach Michael Soscia said. “We’re a fairly young team and we’ve made a lot of unforced errors. Today, even though we’re on a losing end, was one of our better games. We battled to the end and kept it as simple as possible. We did a good job against an undefeated team.”

The Huskies came out strong, racing out to a 3-0 lead with goals from Grace Moclair, Annee Kopecky and Alyssa Raposo over the first eight minutes, 40 seconds of play.

But West wouldn’t fold. Rather, it would respond.

Rouleau went to work, creating separation from behind the net and bouncing one to the back of the goal at 10:01, before taking a feed from fellow sophomore Cosette Lee and ripping a shot top shelf to make it 3-2.

Mt. Hope captain Sarah Barboza responded to push the Huskies ahead by two, but Lee would quickly make it a one-goal game again when she took a pass from Rachael Beneduce and buried it.

Moclair, who paced the Huskies’ offensive attack with three goals and four assists in the game, increased the lead to three when she netted back-to-back goals within two minutes, 11 seconds of each other to make it 6-3.

However, Madeline Souza made a great play on the defensive end and transitioned to offense, using her speed and finding Rouleau on the doorstep, who finished the play with her third goal of the half, cutting West’s deficit to 6-4 in the waning minutes of the first frame.

After 25 minutes of play, the upset-minded Falcons went to the break with confidence.

“I just told them to keep it simple,” Soscia said of his halftime message to his team. “‘Don’t over think the game, just play. Just go out there and play.’ They have three or four dynamic girls, who are tough to stop, so we wanted to continue to key in on them.”

West stuck to the game plan, and it continued to pay dividends.

Allie Reavis scored the first goal of the half for Mt. Hope at 8:11, but Rouleau answered just over a minute later with an assist going to Lee, trimming the deficit to 7-5.

Mt. Hope’s Julia Hill and Rouleau traded goals to bring the score to 8-6 with under 14 minutes left, before the Huskies made a push.

Goals from Raposo at 15:01 and Reavis at 15:40 increased the lead to four, 10-6, Mt. Hope’s largest lead of the game.

But the Falcons responded again.

Grace Ohsberg made a play on defense and went the length of the field, coasting past a bevy of Huskies for her lone goal of the game with just over five minutes left.

Rouleau then notched her sixth tally of the game when she collected her own rebound and found some open net, trimming Mt. Hope’s lead to 10-8 with two minutes, 43 seconds left.

“She’s only a sophomore, so it’s a learning curve, but she’s doing really well,” Soscia said of Rouleau. “It’s nice to see her, even though it’s on a losing end, find the back of the net. She was patient, waited for her shots and she did a great job.”

That’s as close as West would get, though, as the Huskies dominated possession in the final couple of minutes to drain the clock.

West will most likely have to win out with four games remaining if it wants a shot at securing a playoff berth. But, if it plays like it did on Monday, West knows that it can play with anyone.

“We tied them in the second half, so hopefully it’s a good momentum swing for us going into next game,” Soscia said.

The Falcons will be looking to get back in the win column tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Lincoln.