Twice in the span of a week, the Baldwinsville girls lacrosse team had to encounter two key opponents from its 2013 run to the state Class A championship game, and could not win on either occasion.
First, the Bees met Cicero-North Syracuse, the side it beat for the Section III title at the Carrier Dome. In a game moved to Onondaga Community College’s turf due to wet field conditions at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, B’ville took a 13-6 defeat to the Northstars.
The Bees made it clear, from the outset, that it wasn’t in the mood to play at a fast tempo against a Northstars team that had piled up 40 goals in easy wins over Auburn and Oswego to open the season
And that plan worked – on everyone except C-NS senior Tiffany Ryan.
The Binghamton University-bound senior began her first-half surge by scoring 4:24 into the game. Ryan scored again a minute later, and a minute after that a third goal followed, so Ryan had a hat trick, and C-NS owned a 3-0 lead and the game wasn’t even seven minutes old.
B’ville would quickly respond with goals from Andrea Walker and Marjorie Dehm to move within one, 3-2. From there, though, it did not score the rest of the half as C-NS defenders Mary Kate Bonani, Stephanie Liberati, Lexxi Knoblock and Katie Uva put up a strong resistance and goalie Bri Stahrr made some big stops.
Ryan notched her fourth goal to break a drought of nearly 10 minutes, and after Liberati converted, Ryan returned to score for the fifth time with just 37 seconds left in the half.
Up 6-2 at the break, C-NS extended that margin when Christie Hahn scored 2:58 into the second half, but B’ville wasn’t done, putting together three straight goals, two of them from Stephanie Roberts, that made it 7-5 and forced the Northstars to use a time-out.
By then, the game had turned physical, and it would backfire on the Bees, as getting four yellow cards forced them to go a player down for the majority of the second half.
Meanwhile, the Northstars made B’ville pay for ganging up on Ryan. Courtney Kenny scored twice and Hanna Haven added a goal to stretch the margin to 10-5, and down the stretch Samantha Tortora, Miriam Ghabarou and Megan Caveny would convert to give C-NS a more comfortable margin.
Looking to recover Thursday against a 4-0 Syracuse city squad at Corcoran High School’s turf, the Bees returned Taylor Gebhardt to the lineup and put together its best effort of the season to date, rolling to a 13-4 victory.
Unlike with its previous games, B’ville was emphatic with its attack from the start, and it steadily built an 8-2 halftime lead. With the defense in top form and Nicole Burrows stopping 11 of the 15 shots she faced, Syracuse, missing its leading scorer in Sam Downs (out with illness), could not catch up.
Gebhardt had a modest season debut, but still managed a pair of assists. Glory Johnson scored three times for the Bees, while Dehm, Alex Leo and Erin Nagle stepped up with two goals apiece. Roberts, Natalie Kaufman and Meghan Ward also found the net as Hailey Couchman and Anna Mazurkiewicz picked up assists.
And then B’ville faced Farmingdale, the team it lost to last June in the state Class A final at SUNY-Cortland. Now on home grass, the Bees would put up a good battle, but the Dalers again would top them, this time in a 13-10 decision.
Winning most of the draws in the first half, Farmingdale steadily worked its way to a 7-3 lead. For the entire second half, B’ville chased the Dalers, often finding success on the offensive end, but unable to make any sort of sustained stops.
Couchman, with three goals, paced the Bees’ offensive effort. Roberts and Dehm got two goals apiece, while Gebhardt earned her first goal of the season, adding an assist. Johnson and Kylee Scott had the other goals as Walker gained a pair of assists.
After Monday’s game at Rome Free Academy, B’ville gets set for a trip to Texas that starts late this week and will include games against two local opponents, St. John’s Episcopal and Hockaday School.
