The Spartans’ quest for the crown was stopped by the stingy defense of goalie Katie Earll as Issaquah successfully defended its state girls lacrosse title and beat Bainbridge 11-8.

It was a clash of the titans in the championship game last Friday at Eastside Catholic School in Sammamish.

Issaquah entered the championship matchup riding the crest of a two-season, 27-game win streak, and Bainbridge returned to the title game for the first time since 2012, when it won for a second year in a row and ninth time overall.

A win against Issaquah would have been epic, giving the Spartans its 10th crown and making the powerhouse program the all-time state championship record holder.

Issaquah — the only team to beat Bainbridge this year as the Spartans entered the championship game with a 14-1-0 record — outscored BHS 8-5 in the first half and battled Bainbridge to a draw after the intermission.

Issaquah’s recent appearance on lacrosse’s biggest stage was key to their repeat win, said Bainbridge Coach Tami Tommila.

“They didn’t lose very many players from their state team last year. Almost every starter was on that team. I think that’s huge and that’s a big benefit,” Tommila said.

“There’s a benefit that they had coming in here, kinda knowing all the pre-game everything; just the ambiance and the setting,” she added. “I was impressed with how they played tonight. As a team, they were clicking on all cylinders.”

For the Spartans, however, just two seniors had ever been to the big dance.

The game started Bainbridge’s way after Suzy Emerson, Issaquah’s top scorer, clunked a shot off the Spartan crossbar seconds into the game.

Sonia Olson answered on Bainbridge’s next possession and split the posts  at the 22:12 mark for a 1-0 Spartan lead.

Haley Johnson put in the equalizer for Issaquah less than two minutes later, and Issy went up 2-1 after Meg Corscadden added another goal with 19:30 left to play in the first half.

Bainbridge senior Ellen Carpenter knotted the game back up at 2-2 with a score for the Spartans with 13:08 on the clock, but Issaquah regained the lead at 11:09 after Hannah Meier scored from spitting distance and the defending champs were back on top, 3-2.

Freshman scoring sensation Mackenzie Chapman answered for Bainbridge 26 seconds later, and the game was again tied 3-3. Loud chants quickly rose from the Spartan side of the stadium: “She’s a freshman! She’s a freshman!”

The joy was short-lived as Emerson broke the deadlock with her second goal of the evening with 9:46 in the half to give Issy the 4-3 advantage.

Then, with nearly a minute and change gone by, Issaquah expanded its lead to two with another goal by Meir.

The two-goal lead lasted a little more than a minute as junior Robyn Hilderman broke free and cut the score to 5-4.

Issaquah would then reel off three goals in a row — the last on a power play goal by Emerson — and Issaquah led, 8-4.

The Spartans challenged to the end, though, as senior Paige Brigham scored with five seconds before the half to cut Issy’s lead to 8-5.

The Bainbridge faithful had plenty to cheer about at the start of the second half, as Chapman scored again to cut the gap to 8-6.

Kameron Ramirez put a shot past Kelly Coffyn in the Bainbridge net at the 11:42 mark and Issaquah was again ahead by three, 9-6.

The two titans traded scores the rest of the way and Bainbridge could pull no closer, despite Brigham’s third goal of the night with 4:51 remaining, and Issaquah retained its crown.

Bainbridge Coach Tommila said Issaquah worked around the Spartans’ strategy of denying Emerson — who came into the game with 60 goals — of another big scoring night. The Bainbridge defense also keyed on Nicole Victory, Issaquah’s other top scorer.

Both Emerson and Victory were held to two goals each.

“They worked really well without their two star players. That was our strategy with them, and they ran that pretty effectively,” Tommila said of Issaquah’s ability to get others into scoring position.

She also gave much credit to goalie Earll, who finished the night with 11 saves.

“She was huge,” Tommila said. “Her head must be ringing, the poor girl. I mean, she got hit on that noggin a few times.”

Even so, Bainbridge showed plenty of heart — and plenty of fight — in the second half.

“Our team, I think, showed great grit in the second half,” Tommila said.

“At one point, I thought we were going to get into a tie with them.

Because our will was good, it just was, in some cases, a lack of experience, of just taking care of the ball.”

“I think that our one-on-one was successful. We just couldn’t put it in the back of the net,” she said.

Defensively, the game was much different than the March 20 matchup against Issaquah where Bainbridge fell, 16–10.

“Our defense worked really, really hard. I was proud of them. I was proud of our attacks,” Tommila added.

“I thought we were doing a lot of really good things, and it just, again, didn’t fall at the one end,” she said.

Brigham paced the BHS offense with a hat trick, and added two ground balls.

Chapman added two goals and a ground ball and a draw control, and Hilderman had three ground balls to go with her one goal. Olson and Carpenter also added one goal apiece.

Meier led Issaquah with three goals.