The York girls’ lacrosse team beat Greely in April. Greely beat York in May. Saturday night at Fitzpatrick Stadium, Greely took the June tiebreaker on the biggest stage.
Greely controlled play for most of the game and earned a 13-7 victory, capturing its first Class B state championship.
The second-seeded Rangers (13-2) were making their second straight appearance in the Class B final, and a runner-up finish to Yarmouth last season. Fourth-seeded York (10-5) reached its first state final.
“It’s really crazy. Going into it, to take the pressure off, I was like, OK, it’s just a normal game. I think that made my brain be like, we won, but it’s a state championship. It’s been since 1996. Twenty-six years. It’s huge for the program,” said Carley Ferentz, Greely’s lone senior. “We played the whole season as a team. I’m really excited for what this team can do next year.”
Greely’s loss to York by a 16-12 score came in the season opener, when the Rangers were nowhere near the team they would become, Ferentz said. A man-to-man defense was ditched for a backer zone, Ferentz said. Offensively, assistant coach Carrie Bush installed new cuts that sharpened the attack.
“It’s been absolutely lights out since then,” Ferentz said.
Greely took control with five consecutive goals in the first half. Lauren Dennen scored on a low, bouncing shot to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. Just over two minutes later, she skipped another shot into the net.
Ferentz, Eva Williams and Asja Kelman each added a goal to push Greely’s lead to 6-1, before Rose Pavuk broke the Rangers’ run with 1:47 left in the first half.
Charlotte Taylor scored on a free position with 8.6 seconds remaining to give the Rangers a 7-2 lead at the break.
“We didn’t have a great first half. I think nerves. First time for this program to go that far. I think they were overtrying. They were doing things they normally aren’t doing. I’m very proud of all of them. They played their butts off,” said York Coach Phil Rowley.
Greely scored the first four goals of the second half to push its margin to 11-2, before York’s Clara Pavuk scored the 100th goal of her career with 10:08 left.
The Wildcats got three straight goals late in the second half to cut Greely’s lead to 12-7, but any chance of a comeback ended when Dennen scored with 1:52 to play.
Addyson Babcock made six saves for Greely. Tia Spenlinhauer started in net for York and made five saves in the first half. Dilyana Djenkova took over in the second half and made four saves.
Following the game, Rowley confirmed he’ll retire as York’s coach.
“This is my real, real retirement. I have a great assistant coach, Meghan Flanagan, who is taking over. A great lacrosse coach,” Rowley said.
The start of the game was delayed approximately 20 minutes as trainers and medical staff treated an injured fan in the stands.
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