Sports

Ward Melville Girls Fall in County Lacrosse Final

Bay Shore grabs Class A Suffolk championship with 16-8 win.

Ward Melville set out hoping to rewrite history in Thursday's Class A Suffolk County girls' lacrosse championship game, but instead, Bay Shore executed some writer's block against the Patriots and finished with a 16-8 win.

Just like last season, Ward Melville had beaten Bay Shore once during the regular season. And, just like last season, Ward Melville fell to Bay Shore in the county final.

Top-seeded Bay Shore broke open the scoring with early marks by Cynthia Del Core, who would finish with seven goals, and Kyra Harney, who would finish with three goals and an assist. Bay Shore built a 6-2 lead and No. 3 Ward Melville responded back; when Yuna Hur rolled a smart rebound into the net with 6:43 left in the first half, the Patriots had cut the Marauders' lead to 6-5.

"When they come out fast and furious, sometimes it kind of gets us off our game a little bit," Ward Melville coach Kerri Kilkenny said after the game. "I think we did a good job clawing our way back, and got within one. Unfortunately we were down the entire game, and it's hard to come back against a well-oiled machine."

Bay Shore (18-1) owned a 9-6 lead at halftime. Ward Melville (14-5) trailed 10-7 after a goal by Cat Smith four minutes into the second half, and trailed 11-8 after Maddy Wollmuth's third goal of the game with 18:12 left. But it would be the Patriots' final goal of the game, and Bay Shore finished with a 5-0 run.

Hur finished with two goals and Alex Vignona and Emily Rogers-Healion each had a goal for the Patriots. The teams fought even on draws with 13 each.

Kilkenny, whose team last won a county championship in 2007, called Bay Shore "disciplined." Bay Shore goes on to play Farmingdale for the Class A Long Island championship on Sunday at Adelphi University.

"They make little to no mistakes and they capitalized on every dropped ball we had today," she said. "I was hopeful that we were really going to make it a game for them. We were hoping to rewrite history here, but unfortunately that's not the way it ended."


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