Girls Lax Going For Back-To-Back Titles Saturday

After the Tuesday win over U-32, the WUHS girls lacrosse team advance to the division II championship game at Burlington High School at 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 11.

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By George Calver, Standard Correspondent

The Woodstock girls lacrosse team beat U-32 on Tuesday afternoon 15-13 in the Division II semifinals and will go on to play Chelsea in the championship game Saturday with a chance to repeat as state champions.

Though the score suggests a close game, the Wasps jumped to an early lead on a goal by Miranda Johnson and two off the stick of Lauren Kaija — and were up 3-1 less than seven minutes into the match. They kept ahead of the Raiders at least two goals until the final horn.

The No. 3-seeded Wasps, who had swamped Harwood 16-3 in the quarterfinals at home, expected a tough contest from the second-seeded Raiders. In mid-May, Woodstock beat U-32, 9-8, at Frates Field with a lastminute goal by Lauren Kaija. This game was a little less dramatic.

But the U-32 squad is a resilient group, and led by their standout mid- fielder Cilla Wanzer, they did not roll over, and whenever it looked like the Wasps were about to pull away, the Raiders bounced back to keep things close.

Midway through the first period the Wasps were ahead 5-1 but as the half came to an end, the hosts had narrowed the lead to 8-6. Similarly, in the second stanza when Woodstock had pulled ahead 13-6 and appeared to be about to seal the deal, U-32 went on a run of four consecutive goals narrowing the gap to a three goal deficit.

At this point, with 12:03 left to play, coach Amanda Soule called a timeout and huddled her squad at the sidelines.

What did she tell them?

“Lacrosse is a game where momentum shifts happen often, and so I told them to take a deep breath and remain confident,” Soule said.

Moments later, Miranda Johnson, deep in the Raiders defensive zone, snagged a loose groundball, passed it into Lauren Kaija’s stick, and with a flick of the wrist, the ball was in the back of the netting and the Wasps were up, 14-10.

The win was a team effort, but Lauren Kaija, with six goals and three assists on the day — bringing her season record up to 81 goals —led her squad at both ends, and Megan Dalton, playing at the top of her game made 10 saves, many at crucial times when a Raider goal might have tipped the momentum.

Lily Doton, who was given the unenviable job of taking faceoffs against Wanzer, was up to the task splitting ball controls from the faceoffs, 15-15. Doton also had to “shadow” Wanzer throughout the match.

“(Coach Soule) had me take the faceoffs today because of my height — I could get my stick above hers. Coach also told me to be on her because of my height,” Doton said.

Lauren Kaija also explained the Wasps’ strategy to control Wanzer.

“We worked on shutting her down,” she said. “Anyone within 10 yards of her had to keep on her — and it worked.”

No doubt, the Raiders coach had also instructed her charges to keep close tabs on Lauren Kaija, but she was a force at both ends, and her teammates did more than their fair share to nail down the victory: Miranda Johnson, Grace Vosburgh, and Kallan Piconi each struck for two, and Doton, and Nikki Sweeny nabbed singles. Woodstock came out ahead on groundball grabs — 32 to 25.

And so, the Wasps, who came out of the gate hesitantly this season, gradually picked up momentum, topped up the regular season with three wins in a row, and again, will be in the championship game in Burlington Saturday against Chelsea — a 19-5 winner against Green Mountain in the other semifinal game.

This article first appeared in the June 9, 2016 edition of the Vermont Standard.