In a complete and emphatic manner, the Christian Brothers Academy girls lacrosse team made sure that a perfect season had a perfect ending.
The Brothers’ 21-0 run to the state Class A championship culminated Saturday morning at SUNY-Cortland, where it pulled away from Section V’s Pittsford in the second half and prevailed by an 11-6 margin.
“We wanted to end on the highest note possible,” said senior midfielder Emily Ehle, the game’s MVP with three goals and one assist.
Fellow senior Kate Derrenbacker, like Ehle a part of the 2013 state Class B title team, said this one felt just as good, but added that “this is the hardest we ever worked, because it was Class A.”
CBA had handled Pittsford in a pre-season scrimmage in March. But the Panthers had improved plenty since, as it showed by routing defending state champion West Islip 11-5 in the other semifinal, and its top player, Megan Plain, had missed that earlier scrimmage.
Everything was hard-earned from the outset. It took more than four minutes before the Brothers got on the board, Amanda Fess converting on a one-timer fed by Olivia Penoyer.
Once that happened, though, that seemed to fire up CBA on both ends. On one end, Derrenbacker, Lexi Luthringer, Alexandra Fess, Ally Anderson and the rest of the back line kept forcing turnovers, which made up for struggles in the draw circle.
Head coach Doug Sedgwick praised his defense and assistant coach Fran Webster for seamlessly fitting in Anderson into the lineup after Adrianna Fess was injured and missed the rest of the season.
On the other end, CBA’s deep, balanced attack once more showcased itself. In order, Penoyer, Ehle and Maddie Cook all found the net against Panthers goalie Michele Messenger, and the 4-0 lead caused Pittsford to use a timeout midway through the first half.
That seemed to settle Pittsford down, for Plain netted a pair of goals to cut the Brothers’ lead in half, and Maddie Miller scored, too. But two seconds before halftime, Penoyer offered a perfect feed to Tessa Queri for a crucial goal that restored the margin to two, 5-3, at the break.
Pittsford’s frustration at not converting despite claiming eight of the first nine draws boiled over into a pair of yellow cards early in the second half, and it was here that CBA put away the state title.
Within a span of less than 90 seconds, the Brothers put in four decisive goals. Ehle scored twice in that flurry, with McKenna adding a goal and assisting twice and Cook also converting.
According to Ehle, getting those goals was simply a matter of getting confident and knowing what to do, making the same kind of decisive move that had put away so many opponents throughout the last 2 1/2 months.
Rachel Ziemba made it 10-3, and though Pittsford fought to the end, scoring three in a row, the Brothers stayed calm and spent most of the the last five minutes possessing the ball, sealing it with Ziemba’s second goal with 27 seconds left, assisted by Ehle.
Aside from Ehle, Penoyer, Cook and goalie Sloane Nicoletti-Watson, who finished the state final with seven saves, made it to the All-Tournament team.
Sedgwick said that each of the three state championship teams he’s coached at CBA had their own special attributes, but Ehle said what made this one special was that “all 27 players made a difference”.
And those 27 players didn’t let up until perfection was achieved.
