Area girls lacrosse teams will take the field early next week with their seasons on the line as the Section III playoffs get underway.
In Class B, Jamesville-DeWitt, the no. 4 seed, has a chance, if it beats no. 5 seed Auburn in Tuesday’s opening round, to get a shot at top seed Christian Brothers Academy, who has a first-round bye, in Thursday’s semifinals at Chittenango.
The Red Rams go into the sectional tournament with a 10-6 record and on a serious roll, having won six straight games, few of them as satisfying as last Tuesday’s 14-9 conquest of Mexico.
Back on April 9, the Tigers beat J-D 9-7, and with a win here it would capture the outright OHSL Freedom division championship. But the Rams showed Mexico just how much it has improved since its early-season struggles.
During a tense first half, J-D found its way to a 6-4 lead, nearly matching the total of the entire first game. Then it zoomed well past that mark in the second half, gradually pulling away from the Tigers as Taylor Fallon proved impossible to contain.
No matter what defense Mexico tried, Fallon kept passing the ball to open teammates, who converted on a regular basis. All told, Fallon had nine assists, a career high, to go with a pair of goals.
Carly Neugebauer and Carly Stone each benefited from Fallon’s generosity, with three goals apiece, as did Caroline Kopp and Sam McKenna, who had two-goal outings. Madi Alifiers had one goal and one assist, while Meghan Byrnes had the other goal. Cameron Buck finished with 10 saves, overcoming the game-high four goals from Mexico’s Kali Domicolo.
East Syracuse-Minoa takes the no. 3 seed into the sectional tournament and hosts no. 6 seed Fulton in the opening round, an opponent to which it has grown quite familiar, as it will be the two sides’ third meeting in as many weeks.
The Spartans finished the regular season last Wednesday by facing the Red Raiders and winning by a score of 12-7, avenging a 12-10 defeat to Fulton back on May 8 by playing a superb second half.
They were tied, 5-5, at halftime, but in the last 25 minutes ESM took over, led by the trio of Nicole DeVona, Haley DeVona and Rachel Toole, each of whom finished with three goals and two assists.
Sara Hennessey, Cindy Brownson and Megan LeGro offered the support, with one goal apiece, while an air-tight ESM defense forced turnovers and kept goalie Courtnee Notaro protected, Notaro only having to make seven saves.
Meanwhile, in Class A Fayetteville-Manlius had the no. 5 seed and, on Tuesday night, goes on the road to face no. 4 seed Cicero-North Syracuse, looking to advance to Thursday’s semifinal at CBA’s Alibrandi Stadium against top seed and defending state champion West Genesee.
F-M lost its last two regular-season games, including last Monday’s 14-8 decision to Baldwinsville, the second time it fell to the Bees in a 10-day span. The Hornets were unable to recover after falling behind 8-4 in the first half.
Sam Hotchkiss, in defeat, scored four times, with Lindsay Trachtenberg adding two goals. Marri Ryu and Erika Stube also found the net as Cara Esposito picked up a pair of assists. Aubrey Devreau had seven saves as, for B’ville, Sarah Klaben (five goals, one assist) and Taylor Gebhardt (two goals, four assists) led the way.
Two nights later, F-M dropped a wild 15-13 decision to Class C favorite Skaneateles, a game where the Hornets found plenty of success against the Lakers’ defense, yet still trailed 10-7 at halftime and could not quite catch up.
Ryu had five goals, with Mackenzie Everding stepping up for four goals and one assist. Esposito and Trachtenberg each had three assists as Hotchkiss managed two goals and one assist. Lilly Hanlon and Olivia Tejan had the other goals as Carly Primo and Meg Fero contributed single assists.
The difference was that Skaneateles had eight players score goals, to F-M’s five, with three-goal hat tricks from Hannah Powers, Kyla Sears and Alana Navaroli, plus Nicole Beatson getting two goals and two assists.
