Quite a lot stood in the way of the Baldwinsville girls lacrosse team as it went after the Section III Class A championship Tuesday night at SUNY-Cortland, and it went far beyond the high-quality opponent on the field.
Just when the Bees were poised to make another spectacular second-half comeback against Christian Brothers Academy, weather got in the way, and the momentum vanished, never to return in a 13-6 defeat to the Brothers.
On the same turf where it won the state Class A championship a year ago, CBA flourished again, partially due to its own skill, partially due to the good fortune it got early in the second half.
Many familiar plot lines were at work here. For the second year in a row, CBA did not have to face West Genesee in the sectional finals, B’ville having stunned the top-seeded Wildcats 6-5 in the May 25 semifinal at Jamesville-DeWitt.
And just like in that semifinal classic, the Bees would place plenty of first-half struggles.
It took all of 36 seconds for CBA to get on the board with Olivia Penoyer’s goal. More would follow, as Penoyer scored again after tallies from Grace Hulslander and Tessa Queri that pushed B’ville into a 4-0 deficit that lasted deep into the first half.
Not until the 18:54 mark did the Bees break the shutout with Monica Lannier’s goal, but that’s all it would get in the first half. Jillian Henson scored twice late in the half and Queri struck again, and the Brothers were up 7-1 going into intermission.
Of course, B’ville trailed 5-1 against West Genesee before coming back, and as the second half got underway, another rally was in the works. Thanks to success in the draw circle, B’ville started to gain more possession, and that led to three consecutive goals that cut the Brothers’ lead in half.
And that was when thunder and lightning pulled the teams off the field.
For 45 minutes, they waited for it to quiet down, but any delay of any length was bound to half the momentum the Bees were building. Play finally resumed, and a minute later Queri’s goal made it 8-4.
Meredith Strott followed with back-to-back goals, and it was 10-4 when, again, lightning pulled teams off the field for half an hour with 10:12 to play. This didn’t help the Bees, though, as the Brothers finished off a 6-0 run with Meredith Strott’s back-to-back goals.
Only Lannier and Hannah Johnson scored twice for B’ville, with Peyton Fleming and Sara Goodwin each getting one goal and one assist. Katie Pascale also had an assist. Julia George made eight saves as Strott and Queri led CBA with four goals apiece and Penoyer tacked on three assists.
Even with the loss, just getting to a sectional final in Megan Collins’ first season as head coach made 2017 successful for the Bees, Eight seniors depart, including most of the defensive unit, but Johnson, Lannier, Fleming, Goodwin, Pascale, Madeline Czyz, Julia Pelcher and Maria Henwood lead a large returning cast that, next spring, could go all the way to a sectional title.
