Spartan lacrossers earn a split decision

Published 6:00 am Saturday, May 20, 2006

The girls play for the state title, while the boys succumb to Mercer.

One more game to go.

The Bainbridge girls lacrosse team took care of business Wednesday, crushing the Holy Names Cougars 15-2 in a state semifinal game to move onto the championship game and a possible three-peat today at Memorial Stadium in Seattle.

“I’m happy with how they played,” head coach Tami Tommila said. “It’s always our goal as a program to be in the championship game.”

Senior midfielders Colbi Brawner and Jane Baumgartner – who were recently selected as All-Americans – justified their lofty status by scoring the first three goals of the game.

But the Spartans went cold after that, while Cougar goalie Sarah Jones made some big saves.

Cougar Katrina Villanueva scored to make it 3-1.

That’s as close as they got, as Brawner scored her third goal of the half with 12:09 left. Natalie Evans and Baumgartner each scored twice in the last 5:20 to put Bainbridge up for good.

In the second half, it was more of the same as Brawner scored another hat trick and Jane Baumgartner scored her fourth goal of the game.

Her sister Sally scored twice in a row and Lucy Schlesser also put one in to round out the scoring.

Goalie Dimi Lotakis – an All-American honorable mention – had a pretty quiet night, making just seven saves off of nine shots.

But she’ll take a chance to go out on top rather than get a shutout.

“What matters is that once again, the defense got the job done and when they got through I tried to make those saves,” she said. “The fact that it (the win) did happen is a blessing and it’s so great for these young kids to experience it.”

Lotakis, Brawner and Jane Baumgartner were named to the all-state first team, while Tarie Caouette made the second team.

Bainbridge takes on Lakeside for the second straight year in the state championship game today at Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center in Seattle.

Game time is at 7 p.m.

Boys LAX out at home

It was a scene the Bainbridge boys lacrosse team never wanted to see.

But for the second straight year, an opposing team was celebrating a close victory on their field in a state playoff game.

This time, it was their rival Mercer Island jumping up and down in celebration over their 8-7 victory over Bainbridge in a tense and emotional state semifinal playoff game Wednesday night, eliminating the Spartans from seeking another state title.

“It’s tough,” a despondent James Gilbreath said after the game. “We played hard, but we just couldn’t get it done. ”

With fans from both schools making noise from the onset, the Islanders got on the board first when Kevin Mahony scored off the first face off in the first quarter.

It took a few minutes, but Bainbridge responded as Dylan Masi made a quick pass behind the Mercer Island goal to Garrett Lund who made an equally quick shot to score before getting popped by the Islander defense.

Both teams then went into a stalemate, as neither side could score for the rest of the first and most of the second quarter. Bryce Stevenson and Jon Schwartz both made several nice saves and stops to deny anyone from scoring.

The tie was finally broken by Gilbreath as he created a turnover, then went the rest of the way to score.

Sean Forsyth and Masi scored in the third quarter to put Bainbridge up 4-1 and put them in control.

But it all fell apart for the Spartans, as Mahony scored twice while two other players scored once for Mercer Island to tie and then go ahead by one at the end of the third.

The Islanders scored two more times early in the fourth, but Fiore Alailima and Willy Delius made shots from 15 yards out to close the gap to one.

After an illegal procedure was called on Mercer on the face off, Bainbridge worked the ball around to try and get a good shot with 3:30 left, but they missed a pass.

Greg Mahony then intercepted a pass at midfield and took it the rest of the way to score.

Bainbridge wouldn’t stop, as Delius put another one in from 15 yards out to put them down by one again.

Mercer kept denying Bainbridge the ball, and despite turning the ball over with 1:30 to go and committing two critical penalties, Bainbridge couldn’t capitalize, ending their season in heartbreaking fashion.

“It hurts,” Delius said. “We should have hammered out so many of those mistakes that cost us the game.”

But he took solace in how the season played out.

“It’s a bad way to culminate it but this is the best we’ve done in a while,” he said.

The Spartans finished with a record of 16-2.