CENTRAL NEW YORK – Make that four consecutive Section III Class C championships for the Jamesville-DeWitt girls lacrosse team, though this one was, by far, the most unlikely.
The Red Rams, beaten twice by no. 1 seed Fulton in the regular season, went to the Red Raiders’ home turf Saturday in the Class C title game and won the game that mattered most, prevailing by a score of 10-7.
J-D had played Fulton close back on May 7, and that 11-10 defeat gave it belief that it could turn things around, even though the Red Raiders rolled 14-6 in the rematch a couple of weeks later.
Here, the Rams had motivation beyond wanting to win a title – it wanted to send departing head coach Stephanie Rice out with another title before she stepped away to be an assistant principal at nearby Fayetteville-Manlius.
Unfazed when Fulton took an early 4-2 lead, the Rams went in front late in the first half with four straight goals – two of them by Kailey McKenna, the others by Brooke Bort and Everly Kessler.
Ahead 6-5 at halftime, the Rams’ offense went cold for most of the second half, but its defense proved superb, holding the Red Raiders without a goal for more than 18 minutes even as Kessler got her team’s only goal.
And after Fulton cut it to 7-6, J-D struck for two goals 31 seconds apart, credited to Lily Loewenguth, who finished with three goals overall as Kessler got four assists and Lindsay Hildreth got three goals, including a last-minute clincher.
It had started for J-D last Tuesday with a 20-2 romp over no. 6 seed Whitesboro where Kate Wilcox, with four goals and one assist, led a well-balanced attack.
Kessler and Loewenguth both scored three times and got two assists, while McKenna had two goals and three assists. Caroline Stone had a goal and two assists. Syndey Baltoin and Kate Barclay each had one goal and one assist.
Then J-D held off no. 2 seed Homer 9-7 in last Thursday’s semifinal, even though it gave up more shots than it took, the Rams saved in large part due to the 12 saves from goalie Skyler Constantino.
McKenna, with three goals and two assists, and Kessler, with two goals and three assists, paced the attack, with Balotin also scoring twice. Loewenguth and Hildreth had the other goals as Wilcox and Barclay got assists.
Fayetteville-Manlius, in order to repeat as Class B champions, first had to knock off no. 3 seed Watertown in last Thursday’s semifinals, and jumped out 10-0 by halftime on the way to hammering the Cyclones 17-4.
Ava Angello had four goals and one assist, with Halle Daino, Lilian Coleman, Talbot Baldwin and Hannah Madden getting two goals apiece. Sarah Porter, Emily Noel, Caroline Steigerwald, Mabel Hance and Elrose Hanlon had single goals as Grace Reyna (three assists) and Melanie Steigerwald (two assists) helped out.
Two days later, the Hornets faced the awesome task of trying to deny an undefeated Auburn side its first-ever sectional title on the Maroons’ home turf at Holland Stadium – and could not pull it off, falling 19-8 to the Maroons.
For a while, F-M hung around, only trailing 4-3 midway through the first half, but Auburn hit on three straight goals, extended the margin to 9-5 by halftime and never let the Hornets get closer in the second half.
Angello and Julianna Cogliandro both scored twice for F-M, with single goals going to Coleman, Reyna, Daino and Emily Noel as Gracie Giannettino led Auburn with four goals and five assists.
For Christian Brothers Academy in Class A, it all hinged on trying to upset top seed and defending champion Baldwinsville in the semifinal round, which the Brothers could not pull off as it fell to the Bees 19-8.
Ironically, CBA got there by beating Rome Free Academy 13-4 and ending the coaching career of Doug Rowe, who won a state title in 2000 during his long and successful tenure at B’ville.
Bella Roberson, with four goals and three assists, and Gracie Britton, with five goals and one assist, led the charge. Maeve Mackenzie got four assists as Amelia Bonacci scored twice.
Against B’ville, the Brothers fell behind 10-5 by halftime and never recovered, though Roberson and Britton would get three goals apiece. Emma Gebhardt (five goals, two assists), Carlie Desimone (four goals) and Sophia Muscolino (three goals, three assists) led the Bees.
Only East Syracuse Minoa found itself unable to get out of its initial sectional game, the Spartans taking a narrow 11-10 defeat to Central Square.
