One defining characteristic of the West Genesee girls lacrosse team’s long, successful run was the amount of times it had to fight off Baldwinsville to get to the top.
In fact, to win its first state Class A title in 2001, the Wildcats had to dethrone the Bees, who claimed it the year before. It remains B’ville’s lone state title, but head coach Doug Rowe has maintained a strong program in the decade and a half since.
Rowe is stepping down after this season, but not before his Bees made one more visit to Mike Messere Field last Wednesday night and engaged in a battle typical of the WG-B’ville rivalry, full of tremendous defense and physical confrontations before the Wildcats emerged with a 10-7 victory.
Having routed Honeoye Falls-Lima and held off Watertown the week before, WG was supposed to visit B’ville, who had topped Corning in its April 2 opener. But the weekend snows forced a schedule switch, so now the Wildcats will play at B’ville on May 14.
Regardless of the venue, the theme was the same. The Bees would do whatever it could to slow down the game’s tempo, and WG would do everything in its power to speed it up enough and depend on its deep, versatile attack to prevail.
Glory Johnson’s goal 3:48 into the game put B’ville in front, and was the only tally on either side for the first 10 minutes. Whenever it had the ball, the Bees worked it around, but found few really good shots against Caroline McGuigan, Ally Trice, Erin Mills and rest of WG’s defenders, who ably protected goalie Mackenzie Kittell.
Kyra Bednarski’s goal at the 10:43 mark got the Wildcats on the board, and it settled into a better rhythm. Still, it took goals by Bednarski and Nicky Delany late in the half to push WG back in the lead, with Madisyn Kittell’s goal early in the second half creating a 6-4 advantage.
B’ville fought back, seeing Peyton Fleming and Sara Goodwin net goals to forge a 6-6 tie, but right after Goodwin’s tally Mackenzie Baker converted 20 seconds later, putting WG in front for good.
The key sequence came midway through the half. Just as Johnson thought she had converted to tie it again at 7-7, the whistle for a foul, and free-position shot, went up. So Johnson had to shoot again – and Mackenzie Kittell, stopped it.
Instead of a deadlock, B’ville saw WG’s Emily Salanger and Madisyn Kittell net back-to-back goals to stretch the margin to 9-6, and though Goodwin converted with 6:20 left, the Wildcats were effective keeping the ball away from the Bees down the stretch and adding a third goal from Bednarski with 1:34 left that clinched it.
Madisyn Kittell joined Bednarski with three-goal hat tricks as Baker netted two goals. Lexie Meager contributed an assist as Mackenzie Kittell finished with six saves.
Cold weather nixed WG’s trip west to face Victor (Section V) last Saturday, so the Wildcats would resume action Wednesday night at Fayetteville-Manlius before a Friday trip to Auburn.
