In a week of breathtaking extremes, the Baldwinsville girls lacrosse team would be awful one moment, awesome the next.
Through all that, the Bees somehow won three of four games, capping it off by making a pair of ferocious comebacks against quality foes.
In the first of those rallies, B’ville completed a regular-season sweep of defending Class A champion Fayetteville-Manlius by toppling the Hornets 14-12.
Awful at the start, B’ville fell behind 5-1. However, it straightened out and caught up with four unanswered goals to close out the first half, then picked up the tempo even more to outlast F-M after the break.
Meghan Merriam and Jen Fabian each picked up three-goal hat tricks, as Narissa Barzee and Quincy Spagnoletti earned two goals apiece.
Kara Moschetti was a spark for everyone, with five assists to go with her single tally, as Lauren Petrik and Taylor Frink each had two assists. Petrik, Laura Ross and Natalie Chrismer earned single goals. For F-M, Mary Elizabeth Klepper and Lindsey Crawford each had three goals, with Klepper adding three assists.
Two nights later, B’ville topped itself in the comeback category in the course of a 9-7 victory over Cicero-North Syracuse at Bragman Stadium.
The Bees (8-4) lost to CNS, 10-7, just six days earlier, and the rematch looked to be an even bigger problem as the Northstars raced out to a 6-0 lead before the game was 11 minutes old, forcing head coach Doug Rowe to switch goalies, Casey Chiesa replacing Amanda Caloia.
Slowly finding itself, B’ville closed within four, 7-3, by halftime, then completely dominated the second half, shutting out the Northstars. It took the lead for good on Erinn Wilcox’s goal with 9:46 left.
Wilcox, Merriam and Moschetti each finished with two goals, with Moschetti adding a pair of assists. Spagnoletti, Frink and Taylor Gray also scored, as the Bees’ defense protected Chiesa and forced a series of CNS turnovers in the late going.
In that first meeting with CNS, the Bees did not get away with its slow start. Coming off huge back-to-back wins over Fayetteville-Manlius and Liverpool, B’ville appeared to have a full tank of momentum.
However, that tank emptied in a short amount of time. CNS used both speed and physical play to burst to a 7-3 lead by halftime.
Though it had time enough to recover from the surge, the Bees could not sustain a big offensive burst of its own.
Moschetti and Barzee each scored twice. Merriam, was held to just one goal, with Gray and Meagan Rowe also scoring.
CNS used balance to prevail, as four different players — Mary Stimson, Bree Smith, Tori Praino and Rachael Geruso — scored twice.
In between, the Bees tried to relax a bit. But it was far from relaxing in Thursday’s game against Henninger/Nottingham, as it needed every bit of grit to beat the Black Knights 11-10.
B’ville just could not get away, even though it gained a 5-3 edge by halftime. Rachel Brand (four goals) and Dayna Piraino (three goals) carried Henninger/Nottingham as it forged a 10-10 tie.
It took Spagnoletti’s late goal to allow the Bees to prevail. Prior to that, Moschetti and Merriam carried the attack, each of them with three-goal hat tricks, as Barzee, Gray, Madison Frink and Ross also scored.
