The Honeoye Falls-Lima Girls Lacrosse team won its 10th straight Section V Class C title, then won their New York State Public High School Athletic Association Regional game in the state quarterfinals (photo at end of article) and will play in the state semifinal on Friday. Sectional Championship photo by Donna MacKenzie and Regional Postgame photo by HF-L Athletic Department
There is only one word to describe the Honeoye Falls-Lima Girls Varsity Lacrosse team when it comes to the Section V Class C Tournament: dominant. The Lady Cougars won their 10th consecutive Section V title, and 13th overall, last week.
HF-L, seeded #1, routed #2 Geneva 18-8 in the Class C final on May 31. The Cougars pounced early with Clare Ruff netting the first
goal just over a minute into the game. Whitley Easton followed with the team’s second goal just 40 seconds later. Ruff scored her second of the game with 22:04 left in the first half to give the Lady Cougars a 3-0 lead. Geneva finally got on theboard with 20:52 remaining in the half. However, HF-L killed off any momentum Geneva might have gained from that goal with a flurry of five goals over the next 13 minutes. Shaye Angelo had two of those goals, Easton one, Jenna Bovenzi one and Ruff one to boost the Cougars into an 8-1 lead. Geneva popped in its second goal on an eight-meter shot with 6:02 remaining in the half. The Lady Cougars took advantage of two Geneva turnovers for the next two HF-L goals. On the first, the defense forced a turnover and Easton raced up field with the ball in transition and found an open Bovenzi in front of the goal and Bovenzi whizzed the ball past the goalie. The second came off a turnover by Geneva in its defensive end and this time it was Easton getting the ball off an assist from Bovenzi. That pushed the Cougars into a 10-2 advantage. Maeve O’Brien made it 11-2 with 1:40 left. Geneva scored its third goal with 55.9 seconds remaining, but HF-L got the last goal when goalie Lily Brady made a save on an eight-meter shot with 24 seconds left. The Lady Cougars quickly transitioned the ball into their offensive end and Easton tallied a goal with 11.5 seconds left for a 12-3 Cougar advantage at halftime. HF-L kept its foot on the pedal in the second half with three quick goals, by Ruff, Paige Kidd and Angelo, for a 15-3 lead and it was all over for Geneva with the rest of the half being played with a running clock. The closest the game would get would be a 10-goal spread the rest of the way.
Easton finished with four goals, three assists, three ground balls, two draw controls and one caused turnover. Ruff notched four goals, two draw controls, one ground ball and one caused turnover. Angelo collected three goals and one ground ball. Bovenzi netted two goals with three assists and one ground ball. Kidd garnered two goals, one assist, five draw controls and one caused turnover. Adams added one goal and two ground balls. O’Brien had one goal. Camryn Trybuskiewicz chipped in one goal. Marlee Green contributed five draw controls, Emma Hoffman one ground ball and one caused turnover, Maddy Kreidler one ground ball, Caroline Smith one ground ball and one caused turnover and Elizabeth Smith one draw control, one ground ball and one caused turnover. Brady handled five saves.
“We wanted to jump out early,” coach Kevin O’Connell said. “In these kinds of games, everyone is nervous and even though we have some girls who have played in a sectional championship game before, others haven’t. The girls played well; we got and kept possession of the ball and moved it around well.”
HF-L thrashed Grand Island (the Section VI Buffalo area Class C champion) 18-4 in the regional state quarterfinal game on June 4. Once again, the Lady Cougars bolted to an early lead and never looked back with four goals within the first four minutes of the game. HF-L had a 12-2 halftime advantage and the second half was played with a running clock. Kidd racked up five goals, three draw controls, three caused turnovers and two ground balls. Adams fired in three goals with one assist, one ground ball and one caused turnover. Ruff netted three goals with five draw controls and one caused turnover. Easton scored two goals with one assist, three ground balls, one draw control and one caused turnover. Angelo finished with wo goals. Bovenzi collected one goal and one
assist. Trybuskiewicz notched one goal, one assist and one ground ball. Green popped in one goal with two caused turnovers. Taylor Blythe and Matilda Lyle each had one assist. Kaitlin Blodgett
added one draw control, one ground ball and one caused turnover. O’Brien chipped in one caused turnover, Caroline Smith one draw control and one caused turnover and Elizabeth Smith two ground balls. Brady stopped six shots in goal.
“Our defense was very good,” O’Connell said. “Grand Island has two good players and we locked in on them and limited their touches. The game was also decided in the draw circle as we won most of the draw controls and were able to control possession.”
HF-L will play Fulton (from the Syracuse area) in the state semifinals at 1 p.m. on June 10 at SUNY Cortland. Fulton has won 12 of its last 13 games and O’Connell said that Fulton is a talented and athletic team, similar to either Rush-Henrietta or Canandaigua in this area. The winner would likely face Manhasset, the state Class B champion a year ago who is ranked fourth across all classes in New York state and is also ranked nationally. Manhasset takes on Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake in the other semifinal. The state championship game will be at 2 p.m. on June 11 at SUNY Cortland.
