In the most brutal way possible, the West Genesee girls lacrosse team learned the value of charging down the regular-season homestretch to earn the top seed in the Section III Class A playoffs.
Given a bye straight into Thursday’s sectional semifinals at Jamesville-DeWitt, the Wildcats met up with no. 4 seed Baldwinsville and did not resemble the confident team it was for most of the last month, and the result was a stunning 6-5 defeat to the Bees.
It was the second year in a row that WG was knocked off in the sectional semifinals. Cicero-North Syracuse beat the Wildcats in this same round in 2016, and it didn’t appear that the same thing would happen now.
B’ville, despite its solid core of attackers and a strong defense, had lost twice to WG in the regular season. And nothing that took place during the first half suggested the third Wildcats-Bees encounter would end any different.
Cecilia Procopio put the Wildcats on the board, and Mackenzie Baker stretched the margin to 2-0. Following a B’ville goal, WG shut out the Bees the rest of the half, while Baker connected on a second goal after tallies from Julia Williams and Adrianna Nojaim.
The 5-1 halftime deficit would cause most opponents to switch strategy, perhaps pick up the tempo a bit. The Bees didn’t do so, instead creating long possessions that gradually wore the Wildcats’ vaunted defense.
Unable to get the ball, WG saw its lead cut in half, but still was up 5-3 with less than six minutes to play. B’ville then closed the gap to one and, with 3:52 left, Hannah Johnson’s goal produced a 5-5 tie.
Once more, the Wildcats could not get control of the ball, and went back on defense. B’ville worked it around and, with barely a minute to play, Peyton Fleming put a shot past Claudia Mocciaro, Fleming’s third goal of the night.
When WG could not answer it, B’ville was on to Tuesday’s sectional final – against Christian Brothers Academy, who beat Cicero-North Syracuse 13-10 in the other semifinal.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, pondered the end to a 13-4 campaign where it won 10 straight games, only to rest for eight days before the playoffs, where that top form shown for so long never made a comeback.
