The LoHud Girls Lacrosse Blog

In my most recent Power Rankings, I noted my main reason for keeping John Jay ahead of Brewster in Class B was because of the Indians’ 11-goal win over the Bears to open the season. It was clear to me from looking at recent results that Brewster has really turned things around since then, but that became even more evident with today’s 10-8 win over John Jay at home.

“We’ve improved a lot as a team since then,” coach Gerry Walsh said. “Defensively has been our biggest turnaround, and I think it’s really been since the Nyack game.”

The Bears lost a tough one, 7-5, to Nyack on 04/16, but you can see that both defenses really showed up that day. Since then, Brewster has held Lakeland/Panas to nine goals, Horace Greeley to eight, and now John Jay to eight. They also came away with a big 13-11 win over Pearl River on 05/05.

Brewster is surging right now, which is exactly what you hope for this late in the season. It should be noted that the Bears played their first game against John Jay without their top player in Lindsay Biondi, who Walsh also credited for the 13-goal turnaround.

“I think we shot better,” Walsh said. “In the first game we ran with them, but we didn’t shoot well. We didn’t have turf at the time, so we were practicing wherever we could. I think that was a disadvantage early in the season, and obviously Lindsay is a helluva player. She draws a lot of attention, and I think she is one of the top middies on the draw in the section, which creates more possessions.”

John Jay took a 6-5 lead into the half, but Brewster came out and scored three straight goals to take an 8-6 lead. The Indians responded quickly, scoring two straight goals to tie it within one minute, but those would be their only goals of the half. With 9:23 to go, it was Biondi who would have the final say, as she netted the go-ahead goal to give her team a 9-8 lead.

Biondi finished with four goals, while teammate Lily Lleshaj added three assists. Casey Bocklet had three goals and two assists for the Indians.

“I thought we played good team defense,” Walsh said. “We didn’t have as many unforced turnovers, which is something that we’ve had trouble with; including in the first half. We cleaned things up in the second half.”

This win moves Brewster into the top four discussion in Class B, along with Fox Lane, Yorktown and Nyack. The Foxes and the ‘Huskers remain the favorites, but this has the potential to be a very exciting bracket.

Here are the rest of Wednesday’s results (We’ve got a couple of milestones tonight. Congrats to Liz King and Katie Byrne!):

Horace Greeley 18, Harrison 16: At Harrison, Jess Kreisler had six goals and an assist. Issy Berkey added three goals and two assists. Alex Misisco had five goals and two assists for the Huskies.

Yorktown 15, Wappingers 2: At Yorktown, Lindsay Scott had two goals and two assists. Twelve different Cornhuskers scored at least one goal.

Carmel 19, Beacon 6: At Carmel, Priscilla Andalia had three goals for the Rams. Teammate Devan Tookmanian had two goals and two assists.

Sleepy Hollow 20, Blind Brook 7: At Sleepy Hollow, Jennifer Angevine had 10 goals to break the school record of nine which was set by her. Angevine also had two assists. Teammate Marissa Weissmann had three goals and three assists.   Jenna Poplausky had three goals for the Trojans.

Pleasantville 15, Briarcliff 8: At Briarcliff, Liz King scored her 100th varsity goal. She had four in the game. Kristina Howe had four goals and three assists. Kristiana Roth had three goals for the Bears.

Fox Lane 16, Rye 4: At Fox Lane, Lindsay Toppe had seven goals and an assist. Emma Brinkman scored twice for the Garnets.

Hackley 15, Dalton 6: At Dalton, Trish Gorman scored six goals for the Hornets. Teammate Kelly Gorman had 19 saves.

Lakeland/Panas 19, Arlington 5: At Arlington, Anna Jeszeck led the Rebels with four goals and two assists. Emma Bozek and Molly Fitzpatrick each added two goals and one assist.

Byram Hills 18, Ossining 8: At Byram Hills,  Alex Fritz had seven goals and two assists for the Bobcats. Katie Byrne scored five goals, including her 100th varsity goal. Alex Cristello scored three goals for Ossining.

Eastchester 12, New Rochelle 10: At Eastchester, Laura McMahon and Gail Kheyman each had three goals for the Eagles. New Rochelle’s Misha Green had four goals.

And here’s Thursday’s schedule:

Nanuet at Nyack, 4:15 p.m.
Rye at Ossining, 6 p.m.
Westlake at Clarkstown North, 4:15 p.m.
North Salem at Beacon, 4:15 p.m.
Pelham at North Rockland, 4:30 p.m.
Somers vs. Wappingers at John Jay-EF, 4:30 p.m.
Blind Brook vs. Keio at Manhattanville College, 4:30 p.m.
Mamaroneck at Edgemont, 4:30 p.m. (I’ll be covering this one)
Ridgewood (N.J.) at Suffern, 4:30 p.m.
Irvington at Dobbs Ferry, 4:30 p.m.
New Rochelle at Yonkers, 4:30 p.m.
Hastings at Ursuline, 4:30 p.m.
Bronxville at Clarkstown South, 4:45 p.m.
Arlington at Mahopac, 7 p.m.