Right to the end of April, the West Genesee girls lacrosse team kept testing itself, including back-to-back games against reigning Section III champions – Fayetteville-Manlius from Class B, Jamesville-DeWitt from Class C.
Revived by its big April 21 win over CBA, the Wildcats followed it up with an impressive trip to Liverpool where it nearly shut out the Warriors in a 12-1 romp.
Even with Liverpool attempting to slow things down in the first half, the Wildcats built a 4-0 advantage on goals by Emily Stratton, Phoebe Nelson, Matisyn Schaut and Elise Mancabelli, with Nelson, Madison Smith and Sam Detor each getting an assist.
Then it got further away, WG building an 11-0 advantage before the Warriors broke up the shutout on Brittany Halpin’s goal with less than four minutes left.
Schaut netted three more goals in that second half, with Nelson adding a second goal to go with three assists overall. Halen Saroney, Macknezie Winn, Tara Osterdale and Adrianna Nojaim also scored, with Detor contributing a second assist.
Now a bigger test loomed, Thursday at F-M, where the Wildcats’ strong defense would try and solve a lethal Hornets attack averaging better than 15 goals per game. And that defense did play well, yet WG still lost 10-9 to the Hornets.
Never getting a lead, the Wildcats were on the chase after F-M raced out to a 3-0 advantage, not scoring until Schaut converted at the 14:01 mark of the first half. Yet it pulled within one at 4-3 before Amanda Cramer’s goal pushed the Hornets’ edge to 5-3 at halftime.
Still trailing 7-4, WG charged midway through the second half as Nojaim and Saroney scored before Nelson, with 13:17 left, tied it at 7-7 – a tie that lasted all of 30 seconds before Annie Steigerwald put F-M back in front for good.
But it stayed tight as, down 9-7, WG again pulled within one on Schaut’s goal with 2:23 left. The Hornets won the ensuing draw, though, and got a goal from Maddie Noel with 35.1 seconds to play that provided enough of a cushion as Schaut’s goal in the waning seconds proved a bit too late.
