Somewhere along the line, the Christian Brothers Academy girls lacrosse team had to know that an opponent would do anything within its power to slow down the state’s top-ranked Class A squad.
Up until last Tuesday night’s game at Skaneateles, no one had done so – but the Lakers were all too glad to oblige, turning the contest into a tense, physical battle that the Brothers had to work all 50 minutes to attain by a 6-4 margin.
That it was this sort of game traced back to March, when Skaneateles lost its best player, Kyla Sears, for the season with a torn ACL. Since then, the Lakers had spread out its attack well, but had also taken a series of defeats against a brutal schedule.
All of those battles had toughened the Lakers, though, and led to a contest where CBA was not able to find any kind of rhythm in its attack and forced to play the game on the terms Skaneateles wanted.
It was 10-plus minutes before the Brothers got on the board, but it never led at any point. Twice, Skaneateles scored and twice CBA answered, but Riley Brogan’s goal with 36.6 seconds left in the half put the Lakers in front 3-2 going into the break.
Now it was time for CBA’s defense to take charge. Seniors Kate Derrenbacker, Amanda Fess, Lexi Luthringer and Alexandra Fess all did a tremendous job bottling up the Lakers’ forwards, and Sloane Nicoletti-Watson made five saves.
Meanwhile, the Brothers tied it up, 3-3, less than a minute into the second half, but didn’t take the lead for good until it got goal with 13:32 to play, tacking on an insurance goal less than five minutes later.
Six different players – Rachel Vercilo, Sam McKenna, Emily Ehle, Grace Hulslander, Meredith Strott and Rachel Ziemba – earned those six goals. Claire Jeschke got two assists, with Vercillo and Olivia Penoyer each getting one assist.
It proved far easier for CBA to defeat Oswego 20-5 on Thursday night. Getting a 15-4 lead by halftime, the Brothers saw Penoyer and Amanda Fess both score three times, with Ehle piling up four assists while she joined Hulslander, McKenna and Ziemba in the two-goal column.
Cook finished with a goal and two assists, while Jeschke, Rachel Vercillo, Morgan Riley and Erica Mayette each had one goal and one assist. Jillian Henson also had a goal as Strott, Tessa Queri, Lilly Hunt and Maddie Henson picked up assists.
Then, in Saturday’s 21-4 win over Chittenango, the Brothers ran up a 17-0 halftime lead as Penoyer got five goals and one assist and Vercillo added three goals and three assists.
Queri also scored three times, with McKenna and Ehle both producing two goals and two assists. Ziemba got one goal and three assists as Cook, Hulslander and Amanda Fess earned single tallies. Jeschke and Strott added assists.
Jamesville-DeWitt, coming off a May 7 defeat to Fayetteville-Manlius in the inaugural ‘Rivalry Cup’, met up with more trouble in last Tuesday’s game at Westhill, unable to keep up in a 19-9 defeat to the state Class C no. 14-ranked Warriors.
Under the direction of first-year coach (and former CBA star) Brittany Brigandi, Westhill had started 9-2, and lit into J-D with a well-balanced attack where Natalie Jetter had four goals and four others – Shelby Stack, Abby Stack, Erin McMullen and Haleigh Farrell – earned three goals apiece.
By contrast, two Red Rams players accounted for most of its offense, with Lizzie O’Brien and Katie Lutz getting four goals apiece and Julia Kelner earning the other. Otherwise, Westhill goalie Morgan Hayes thwarted them and earned eight saves.
Far from all the success at CBA and J-D, the struggles of East Syracuse Minoa continued last Monday night with an 18-9 home defeat to LaFayette, mostly caused by a first half where the Spartans surrendered 12 goals and could not keep up.
Janee DeLuca still managed four goals and one assist, with Olivia McEachron adding three goals and one assist. Brigid McGinley and Kate McGarrity scored, too, but the Lancers proved too potent, seeing Mya DeJoseph and Charlotte Ryan each net five goals (DeJoseph added two assists) as Kaitlin Rurka added three goals and one assist.
ESM got a lot closer on Wednesday night at Homer, where it led, 6-5, at halftime, but it couldn’t quite hang on in an 11-10 defeat where Olivia Porter (five goals) and Carolyne Yonta (four goals) accounted for most of the Trojans’ production.
On the Spartans’ side, DeLuca also had five goals, with McGarrity getting two goals and two assists. Tate Kohlbrenner also scored twice as McEachron earned the other goal and Claire Callahn, in goal, recorded six saves.
