For two consecutive weekends, the West Genesee girls lacrosse team had gone through harrowing and exciting competition, twice pushed into overtime and finding both frustration against Skaneateles and joy against Garden City.
Now the Wildcats faced what looked, on the surface, to be another big weekend test when it went to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium Friday night to face defending Section III Class A champion Baldwinsville, a team it beat 16-3 on March 31, though it came with several Bees stars, including Taylor Gebhardt, out with injuries.
The Bees believed that the rematch would be different, and it was – the Wildcats were even better, playing a near-perfect first half where it scored 15 unanswered goals and cruising from there to handle B’ville 18-5.
B’ville won the opening draw, and patiently worked the ball around, but never got a shot off as WG’s defense forced a turnover. From that point on, the Wildcats did little wrong.
Goals by Marissa Hudgins and Taylor Collins 30 seconds apart began the surge. Hudgins, Jackie Pardee and Hannah Elmer quickly followed with tallies that made it 5-0 and forced the Bees to use a time-out less than eight minutes into the game.
And that didn’t stop WG one bit. Pardee scored again, and Elmer followed with her second and third goals to make it 8-0 as Riley Donahue, by this point, had four assists on her ledger.
When Grace Osterdale found the net and Donahue netted her first goal at the 16:20 mark, the Wildcats had made it 10-0, which created a running clock, but even then the Wildcats were far from satisfied.
Osterdale’s back-to-back goals ran the margin to 12-0. Donahue contributed a second goal and Elmer returned to score for a fourth time before Hudgins, in the waning seconds of the half, completed her hat trick.
From dominating in the draw circle to having defenders Liz Bova, Mia DiBello, Madison Pritchard and Lexie Meager shut down anything B’ville tried to get its attack going, the Wildcats, in those 25 minutes, put on one of its most impressive displays in recent memory.
And it was 16-0 before back-to-back goals by Stephanie Roberts finally put the Bees on the board. Natalie Kaufman, Marjorie Dehm and Glory Johnson also got late goals, but WG was far out of reach.
Elmer finished with five goals and two assists, with Donahue adding two goals and five assists. Nicky Delany added a late goal as Angela Ponto, seeing extended net duty in the second half after replacing Katherine Widrick, picked up five saves.
As a tune-up, WG rolled past Rome Free Academy 22-1 last Monday night. Since it was the team’s third game in four days (following its tournament wins over CBA and Garden City), the Wildcats gave everyone in the lineup lots of playing time as it cruised to a 14-0 halftime lead.
All told, 18 different players got at least one goal. Sinead Guy led with two goals and three assists, with Elmer, Mackenzie Baker and Lindsey Rose matching that two-goal output.
Donahue, Hudgins, Pardee, Ponto, Collins, Delany, Kaylee Kick, Madison Pritchard, Melissa Moran, Madisyn Kittell, Gianna Branca, Jessica Dussing and Meghan Colabufo also scored. Moran and Osterdale had two assists apiece.
With B’ville cast aside again, WG would turn its attention to the rest of the regular season, which includes next Tuesday’s game against Fayetteville-Manlius (which is Senior Night) and trips to Liverpool and Oswego before the Section III Class A playoffs loom.
