Baldwinsville’s girls lacrosse team did something remarkable and historic during Thursday’s Section III Class A semifinal at Chittenango High School.
For an entire half, the no. 4 seed Bees kept top seed and defending state champion West Genesee off the board, something no one else had pulled off in Wildcats head coach Bob Elmer’s 16 years at the helm.
Yet even that wasn’t enough for B’ville, who could not take advantage of this situation enough to prevent a WG comeback that led to a 4-2 defeat.
Of course, the Bees almost didn’t reach the semifinals. Twice trailing by at least three goals in the second half of last Tuesday’s opening-round game against no. 5 seed Fayetteville-Manlius, the Bees rallied both times, and managed to fight past the Hornets 15-12.
They had met twice in an eight-day span in the regular season, the Bees prevailing 13-12 in overtime on April 14 and, a week later, winning 14-9 at F-M. Now, in the third meeting, the Hornets almost snagged B’ville.
During a back-and-forth first half, the Bees led, 5-3, but then F-M scored three straight goals to take a 6-5 lead to the break and then, not stopping there, went up 9-5 early in the second half.
B’ville absorbed all this, and then pushed back, with a rush of goals to tie it, 9-9, before F-M struck with a three-goal run of its own to lead 12-9 with less than 10 minutes to play.
Somehow, the Bees made one more comeback, pulling even at 12-12, and then moving out in front for good, all in a span of less than five minutes, and the Hornets were unable to recover.
F-M fixated its defense on Gebhardt, holding her to two goals and one assist, but paid for it thanks to Alex Leo, who had five goals, and Glory Johnson, who added four goals. Marjorie Dehm matched Gebhardt’s two-goal effort as Sara Goodwin and Maria Henwood also found the net. Andrea Walker added an assist.
Allison Macrae, with three goals and one assist, led a well-balanced F-M attack where Jamison Seabury also scored three times. Sydney DeGirolamo had two goals and one assist, with Amanda Cramer also scoring twice. Mary Trop and Jane Cote each had one goal and one assist.
This led to West Genesee, and a chance to pull off another surprise against the state’s top-ranked team after B’ville pulled off a 6-5 victory over the Wildcats in the May 12 regular-season finale.
Here, the plan was the same – stay aggressive on defense and patient on the attack. And for a half, that plan worked to perfection.
Working together, defenders Jaclyn Hingre, Lauren Paul and Paige Smith, with plenty of help from midfielders like Erin Nagle and Kylee Scott, harassed WG’s forwards and forced a string of turnovers. Even when the Wildcats did get shots, goalie Julia Geoge turned them away, recording five saves in the first half.
Meanwhile, WG’s defense was quite effective, too, only surrendering goals to Walker early in the half and Johnson late in the half. This left it 2-0 going into halftime.
Just 1:36 into the second half, The Wildcats’ drought ended with Lexie Meager’s goal. Six minutes later, WG forced a turnover that Kyra Bednarski turned into a fast-break goal.
Now with energy and momentum, WG kept pushing, and goals by Grace Osterdale and Mackenzie Baker 31 seconds apart put the Wildcats in front.
More than 15 minutes remained, but the Wildcats had all the offense it needed. With the back line making more big stops, WG decided, with 10 minutes left, to hold the ball, and it managed to do so until the final minute, bleeding the clock in a manner the Bees had to find familiar.
