Introduced together and working together, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls lacrosse team put an all-out effort into snaring the Section III Class B championship out of Watertown’s grasp Tuesday night at the Carrier Dome.
Yet all of those efforts could not stop the Cyclones, who prevailed, 14-11, just as it did against the Red Rams in last year’s sectional final, largely on the strength of a potent attack and a defense that kept J-D off the board for long stretches.
Having avenged a regular-season defeat to Fulton in its 10-5 sectional semifinal win on May 26, the Rams now sought more payback for what had taken place in the 2015 sectional final, though doing so against a Watertown team featuring such potent forwards as Olivia Miles, Madisyn Exford and Jill Girardi was a daunting task.
With two gifted, athletic teams, the pace was fast and frantic from the outset. J-D initially thrived with this, getting goals from Lizzie O’Brien and Riley Burns in the first six minutes and seeing goalie Maddie Behan make some key early stops.
Yet the Rams’ 2-1 lead would not last. The Cyclones started to control the draws and the possession time, and that translated into six unanswered goals that gave Watertown the lead for good.
Madisyn Exford had two of the first three goals in that run. Then Miles took charge, converting three consecutive times in a span of less than three minutes. Suddenly, J-D trailed 7-2 and the game threatened to get away.
The Rams went nearly 15 minutes between scoring plays before Alyssa Phillips broke that drought with 4:34 left in the half. Moments later, Girardi went to the sidelines with an ankle injury and, sensing an opportunity, J-D struck twice more as Burns and Ana Dieroff found the net.
At halftime, the Rams trailed 7-5, but it seemed to have all the momentum. However, Girardi returned to the field at the start of the second half, promptly won the first draw – and then scored at the 2:47 mark, starting another Cyclones run.
This one involved four straight goals, two of them by Girardi and another by Miles, with Exford returning to complete her hat trick. Meanwhile, any time J-D had the ball, Watertown’s defenders clamped down and forced turnovers.
Despite all this, things got closer down the stretch. Breaking another 15-plus minute scoring drought, Phillips found the net with 11:25 left, and the Rams made an all-out push, twice answering Watertown goals as O’Brien converted again and Phillips struck twice more, giving her five for the night, all of which narrowed the margin to 13-10 with more than three minutes to play.
However, the Cyclones got the ensuing draw and Exford, with 2:48 left, converted again for the clincher. Between them, Exford, Miles and Girardi had 12 of Watertown’s 14 goals as Miles ran her season total to 79 goals and Girardi has 62 goals, to go with 57 assists.
J-D, meanwhile, finished its season 13-6 under second-year head coach Dennis Kennedy, and well-positioned to go for another crown in 2017. Phillips, Behan, Melissa Murphy and Maddison Newsoman are the lone seniors, and everyone else is poised to come back and get another shot at a championship.
