What was already evident with the Baldwinsville girls lacrosse team was that it had not given itself any sort of breather with its early schedule.
Following an April 2 win over Corning, the Bees had taken back-to-back defeats to West Genesee and Suffern, and those struggles continued last Tuesday night, at Bragman Stadium, where B’ville again found it difficult to get its offense going in a 13-5 defeat to the Northstars.
Going in, the Bees were aware of C-NS’s firepower, especially the presence of senior Meghan Duffy, who had surpassed 300 career points in her team’s April 9 win over Webster Thomas.
Yet it still couldn’t contain Duffy, who scored four goals and helped the Northstars build a 6-2 halftime advantage. Throughout the game, the Bees were unable to put together any sort of sustained run, nor get much production from its supporting cast.
Glory Johnson had three goals and one assist, but the rest of the Bees were quiet, save for Julia Pelcher and Maria Henwood, with one goal apiece, and Sara Goodwin, who picked up an assist.
Constantly under attack, Madeline Curtis and Julia George had 13 total saves, but couldn’t keep everything out. Duffy, along with Bryar Cummings (three goals, one assist) and Samantha Tortora (two goals, three assists), would pace C-NS.
Yet another tough game awaited the Bees Friday night when it visited Fayetteville-Manlius, who was coming off a 12-6 loss to West Genesee two nights earlier. The Hornets shook off that disappointment, built a big early led and held off a late charge to defeat B’ville 11-9.
All through the first half, the Bees’ defense capitulated enough that even an improved attack could not prevent a 9-4 deficit. Late in the game, though, B’ville made its own run, finally displaying the sort of scoring balance it had long looked for.
Johnson did score twice, but so did Anna Mazurkiewicz and Peyton Fleming. Pelcher, Maddi Czyz and Natalie Farnett added single goals. Ciara Curtis finished with nine saves, yet the Hornets held on as three of its players – Mary Trop, Amanda Cramer and Kiera Shanley – earned three goals apiece.
To break this skid, B’ville needed to beat Queensbury (Section II) on Saturday afternoon – and did so, edging the Spartans 13-12 in overtime after a back-and-forth battle where the Bees led, 7-6, at halftime, but neither side could pull away.
So it was 12-12 when, in sudden-victory OT, Mazurkiewicz put home the game-winning goal, her third of the game to match Fleming. Johnson again set the place, scoring five times and adding an assist, with Emma States adding two goals and two assists. Goodwin and Kayla Sweeney got single assists. Madeline Curtis made seven saves.
This improved B’ville’s record to 2-4 as it awaited Tuesday’s trip to Liverpool and a Thursday visit to Auburn before its annual spring-break trip, this time to Georgia, where it will play a pair of games near Atlanta and Augusta.
