For a long time, the Baldwinsville girls lacrosse team could count on getting the best of its neighbors from Liverpool.
At the worst possible moment, though, the Bees’ grasp of this rivalry slipped away – and the price was elimination in the Section III Class A semifinals.
B’ville, the no. 2 seed, fell to the no. 3 seed Warriors 14-11 Thursday night at Christian Brothers Academy’s Alibrandi Stadium, reversing the trend of recent years where the Bees always seemed to finish on top.
That included a marathon 2011 sectional semifinal that, due to weather delays, stretched out over two days and two overtimes before B’ville pulled it out. And it included two regular-season meetings in April, where the Bees prevailed by scores of 17-12 and 11-6.
So when Maggie Monnat and Erika Wilcox hit on goals in the opening minutes of the semifinal to give B’ville a quick 2-0 lead, fans and players alike may have thought the Bees were on the way to another Liverpool conquest.
If so, that proved wrong. The Warriors promptly went on a 7-1 run that covered most of the first half and put them ahead for good.
Andrea Flood provided the spark, converting on each of Liverpool’s first four goals, and the Bees could not answer back because the Warriors were dominating in the draw circle, leading to long possessions and extra work for the defense.
B’ville went nearly 12 minutes without a goal, stopped only when Claire Monnat converted the first of her four goals late in the half. The Bees trailed, 8-4, at halftime.
Whatever it tried in the second half, B’ville could not cut into that deficit, and found itself down 12-7 after Morgan Kline scored with 11:17 to play.
Desperate to keep going, The Bees finally put a run together. Claire and Maggie Monnat combined to score three times, and Sarah Klaben also converted, in between Mary Fadden’s tally. When Claire scored her fourth goal with 4:04 left, B’ville only trailed 13-11.
But after a time-out, Liverpool regrouped, made a key defensive stop, and then worked down the clock until Lauren Mancini’s goal with 1:45 to play all but clinched a date in the finals against defending champion West Genesee, who beat Fayetteville-Manlius 19-6 in the other semifinal.
Ending its season with a 13-4 mark, the Bees see a large senior class depart, from the Monnat sisters to the likes of Wilcox, Andrea Moore, Ashley Gentile, Emma Jeffery, Sarah Lindovski, Jessica Roberts and Taylor Pastore. Key returnees for 2013 include Klaben, Kennedy Frink and Amari Pollard.
