Back from a successful weekend where it won twice in Pennsylvania, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls lacrosse team had a chance to make some program history.
When the Red Rams hosted East Syracuse-Minoa on a wet and chilly Tuesday afternoon, it called upon defense and patience to push past the Spartans 8-6 for its record-tying ninth consecutive win.
It helped, in a big way, that ESM did not have one of its top offensive threats, Allyson Rossi, in the lineup — but the Spartans still took a 1-0 lead when Carissa Ficarro scored less than 90 seconds into the game.
That only seemed to kick the Red Rams into a higher gear, for it answered with a five-goal flurry, spurred by Kate Byrnes’ pair of tallies in a 34-second span. Emily Johnson then nabbed back-to-back goals, and when Ashriel West scored at the 10:12 mark, J-D led 5-1, and threatened to make it a blowout.
Somehow, ESM settled down and, for the next 30 or so minutes of play, allowed just one goal (to Johnson). Much of that was due to great work in the net by goalie Katie Cook, who made most of her eight saves during this span.
Getting goals from Ficarro and Gina Campese, ESM pulled back to 6-3 by halftime, then engaged in a long stalemate before Ficarro converted again with 11:22 to play, making it 6-4.
Barely a minute later, Meredith Howe answered, ending a long J-D drought, and it possessed the ball down the stretch as West added a second goal with 3:01 left, enough of a margin so that two last-second goals by Campese didn’t matter.
J-D’s defense, led by Emily Luckette, Claire Kopp and Morgan Freeman, made sure no one other than Ficarro or Campese could affect them, and Tara Prosak finished with six saves.
On Friday, the Red Rams hosted Cortland, a team it lost to on this same field a season ago, and looked to set a new record with a 10th straight win.
And J-D got that record, overcoming more windy conditions to beat the Purple Tigers 13-7. Unlike the ESM game, once the Rams got in front, it continued to stretch out the margin, going from an 8-4 halftime edge to something more comfortable.
Howe, with four goals and two assists, led a well-balanced attack where Byrnes had three goals and two assists and Tory Nies earned a goal and three assists. West and Johnson both scored twice, with Liz Beville getting one goal and one assist. Molly Maroney had an assist, too.
ESM, still without Rossi, fought its way past Chittenango 10-6 last Thursday night, not getting clear until the second half as, once again, the offense proved to be a two-player show.
Ficarro worked her way to five goals, while Campese finished with four goals and one assists. Marlee Vlassis had the Spartans’ other goal. Jessica Antelmi and Tess Piraino led Chittenango with one goal apiece.
