Four and a half weeks after their first encounter, the Baldwinsville girls lacrosse team met West Genesee again, this time at home – and inched closer to conquering the state’s top-ranked team. The Bees’ 12-8 loss to the Wildcats ended a stretch of five games in nine days where B’ville won the first four, but may have proven the most at the end, where it stared WG down for much of a hard-fought contest. A month earlier in Camillus, WG led by as much as 10 over B’ville before a late surge by the Bees helped close the final margin to 17-11. Now they had the rematch at Ray Middle School, where it was immediately apparent that things would get tougher for the Wildcats. Claire Monnat and Katie Sullivan scored in an 11-second span in the opening stages, putting B’ville in front 2-0. But those would be the Bees’ last goals for a span of more than 18 minutes as WG went on a 6-0 run, Erica Geremia scoring three times in that span. B’ville would not get blown out here, though, battling back in the late stages of the half. When Maggie Monnat beat Libby Byrne on a free-position shot at the horn, the Bees had closed within 7-5 at they went to halftime. Now with some momentum, B’ville held the ball for the first seven-plus minutes of the second half, but got just one goal (from Erika Wilcox) in that sequence, missing several chances to tie the game. After an exchange of goals made it 8-7, the Bees again could not pull even. Instead, Katey Hart, scored to build WG’s margin to 9-7 and, worse yet, B’ville got whistled for a third yellow card with 11:15 left, meaning it would play the rest of the game one player down. Without a full lineup to work with, the Bees could not contain the Wildcats the rest of the way, especially Hart, who had three of her four goals in the second half and added four assists. Emily Tripodi also had four assists, to go with her pair of goals. Katie Sullivan and Ashley Gentile each scored twice for the Bees, while Claire Monnat finished with a goal and two assists. Erin Ward joined Maggie Monnat and Wilcox in the single-goal column as Laura Passamonte finished with six saves.
In the middle of this tough stretch, B’ville made up the rained-out April 23 game against Cicero-North Syracuse. Despite playing for the third time in five days, the Bees finished strong and beat the Northstars 18-8. Through a tightly played first half, neither side could get clear. B’ville only carried a 6-5 lead, but after the break it used its depth and skill to wear CNS down, dominating on the draws and converting most of the time it went down the field. Claire Monnat led the charge, with five goals and two assists. Ward scored three times as Sullivan, Gentile and Meghan Cuddy got two goals apiece. Maggie Monnat notched three assists, with Wilcox, Sam Yaro, Sarah Klaben and Amari Pollard earning single goals. It proved easier in Tuesday’s game at Henninger/Nottingham, a 22-3 rout that was most significant for the fact that it gave head coach Doug Rowe his 300th career win. Determined to get the milestone out of the way (and just as determined to get set for West Genesee), B’ville jumped to a 14-1 halftime lead. From that point forward, Rowe tried to rest key players for West Genesee. Wilcox set a new career mark with five goals, while Gentile scored four times. Sullivan, Cuddy, Ward and Kim Contant each scored twice as Maggie Monnat earned five assists and Kennedy Frink added four assists. Klaben, Mattey Masselli, Claire Monnat, Johna Kjerstad and Megan Meszaros earned one goal apiece. For the 300th win, Rowe received, as a gift, a lacrosse stick autographed by all of his players. Win no. 301 did not arrive against West Genesee, but the Bees would get a chance to add to that total in a rematch with F-M, plus games against Central Square and Auburn.