Having claimed each of the last two Section III Class C championships, the Jamesville-DeWitt girls lacrosse team set out on another quest for glory.
Quite early, the Red Rams would face a neighborhood rival as it was scheduled to take on East Syracuse Minoa Monday night, this after both of them had earned victories in the waning days of March.
ESM had gone first, venturing to Central Square last Wednesday and prevailing 13-10. A high-scoring first half would eventually go 8-6 in the Spartans’ favor, and it withstood every attempt by the Redhawks to catch up.
And it did so with near-perfect scoring balance. Four different Spartans – Rileigh White, Kelly Thomas, Emma Biel and Julianna Barton – had three-goal hat tricks, with Katherine Andrus earning the other goal. Central Square’s Courtney Fox led her side with five goals.
Then it was J-D’s turn, a difficult assignment as it ventured to Auburn on Friday, facing a Maroons side that nearly upended Fayetteville-Manlius in the sectional Class B final last spring and already had a 15-8 win over Cortland on its ledger.
But the Red Rams conquered this assignment, prevailing 14-10 over the Maroons and, in doing so, showing that it could expertly recover when an opponent jumped out in front of them.
Auburn took early leads of 2-0 and 4-2, but each time J-D caught up, the key moment a 5-0 dash in the middle of the first half that put them in front for good.
By halftime, it was 10-6, and when the pace slowed down in the second half, the Rams were able to contain Auburn, never letting the margin get closer than three goals again.
Ana Dieroff paced J-D, finding the net five times. Lily Loewenguth got three goals and one assist, with Emily Bobrek scoring twice.
Chloe Loewenguth had a goal and two assists as Lindsay MacLachlan and Kailey McKenna each had one goal and one assist. Riley LaTray got the other goal as Auburn got three-goal hat tricks from Abbie Izzo and Natalie Calandra-Ryan.
ESM, meanwhile, was taking on the combined Syracuse City team and moving to 2-0 on the season with a 16-5 victory which saw Thomas net five goals and Julia Carauna get four assists and a goal. Biel and Barton again had three-goal outings.
