RSS Feed
|
|||||
|
Chelsea’s Undefeated Run
Ends in 11-10 B&B Victory By Mary Childs After a spectacular 16-0 romp through the regular season and the first two playoff games, Chelsea’s girls lacrosse team came up one goal short of the state championship in the title game Saturday in Burlington. The Chelsea girls took on Burr and Burton Academy (11-6) in a rematch of the 2007 title game. By the end of the 50-minute game, B&B had defended that 2007 title with an 11-10 hard-fought win. The championship match up marks the fourth time Chelsea and Burr and Burton have met in the final game in the last seven years. They also met in regular season play, and from the start both teams knew it would be a close game, as they proved to be the top two teams in the division. Each team knew what was at stake as the whistle sounded and went to the ball hard. Chelsea came up with it first and worked its way around B&B’s defense. Hillary Bonasera opened the scoring to give Chelsea the first lead. The Bulldogs threatened to tie when Chelsea’s goalie Morgan Tuller came out of her net to defend an attacker and instead earned a foul. With Tuller behind the goal, and a B&B player with the ball and nothing but an open net in between, Chelsea defenders knew what they had to do and stopped the shot to give Chelsea possession and to get Tuller back to her net. Lady Devil Grace Amber took the ball into her own hands and tallied Chelsea’s second goal, but the Bulldogs got into the game with a goal of their own to close the gap to 2-1. But Chelsea’s Althea Spencer scored when a foul was called on B&B. B&B responded with a second goal but Chelsea eighth grader Jasmine Braman put the wheels on and answered with the Devil’s fourth goal. Shortly thereafter, Jodi Emerson fed Michelle Upham to give Chelsea the advantage, 5-2, with less then two minutes remaining in the half. But that was the biggest lead Chelsea would have, as in the last few minutes of play B&B rallied and scored two goals to close Chelsea’s lead to 5-4 going into the break. After halftime B&B came out strong and tied the score three minutes into the half. The rest of the game found the lead flopping back and forth. B&B tallied two more consecutive goals, giving them their first lead of the game, 7-5. But the Devils came back to tie it up again with goals by Hillary Bonasera, assisted by M. Upham, and a Grace Amber goal after turnovers forced by Bonasera. Amber tallied another goal, and 13 seconds later Whitney Ladd sent one home re-establishing Chelsea’s two goal lead, 9-7. B&B Roars Back In the remaining 13 minutes the momentum changed and B&B found new energy and scored two goals to tie the game 9-9 with less than nine minutes remaining. Chelsea was beginning to feel the pressure from B&B as the game became more aggressive and physical. Throughout the remainder of the game, B&B held possession, outshooting Chelsea 28-18, but keeper Tuller wasn’t ready to let them have any free shots and stopped one after another, as senior defender Willa Capobianco held the defensive fort strong. Appearing out of nowhere several times, B&B intercepted Chelsea’s attempts to advance up the field and knocked in two goals from Emma Provenzano to take the final lead of the game, 11-9, with less than four minutes remaining. Pumped up with the lead, B&B wasn’t allowing Chelsea to penetrate through its defense and limited Chelsea’s possession. With the time ticking under one minute it wasn’t looking good for the Devils, but they were not going to give up. With 48 seconds remaining, Spencer sent one flying to the net to close the gap to 11-10. In the final seconds, possession would determine who won the game and it was B&B that fought for the ball and earned that right, disabling Chelsea from scoring again. H. Bonasera was high scorer with three goals, including an impressive back hand shot. Amber and Spencer tallied two each and Braman, Ladd, and Upham each knocked in one of their own. Kristen Palmer led B&B with three goals as Provenzano added two. Tess Montague and Sarah Shehadi each tallied two apiece. B&B’s goalie Page Emond had eight saves. Chelsea’s goalie Morgan Tullar had an outstanding game with an impressive 17 saves which kept B&B to a one- goal win. Semifinal Win The Chelsea girls lacrosse team welcomed BFA-St. Albans in semifinal action last Wednesday, June 11, and came away with a 10-6 win to advance to the Division II girls lacrosse title. BFA proved to be their biggest challenge yet, as the game opened with a slow start for both teams. BFA started the scoring, putting Chelsea behind, something they are not used to. But Chelsea rallied and scored three consecutive goals to give them a lead they would hold for the rest of the game. Chelsea scored another goal before BFA tallied their second of the game to make the score 4-2, but that was as close as BFA would come to beating the undefeated Red Devils. Chelsea’s solid defense and clears to the offensive end enabled them to put five more balls into the back of the net while BFA managed to slip one past keeper Morgan Tuller, sending Chelsea into the half with a 9-3 advantage. When the whistle blew for the start of the second half BFA came out ready to play and scored two consecutive goals. Chelsea’s offense was shut down and was not able to tally their tenth and final goal until half way through the second half. Fouls began to plague the Devils in the midfield, giving BFA opportunities to possess and score. But Chelsea’s keeper Tuller held strong in the net and only let one more goal slip by her in the final minutes of the game to close the final score to 10-6, making it their closest game of the season and the first time any team had scored more than four goals on them. Six Chelsea players scored in the game. Kim Upham led with three goals. Grace Amber and Michelle Upham each tallied two and Hillary Bonasera, Althea Spencer and Jasmine Braman one each. Tuller had an impressive 10 saves for the Lady Devils and the BFA keeper nine. |
for larger version     |
||||
)