Thursday, May 23, 2019
Cardinals’ historic
season ends in D-II
regional semifinal
By BOB ETTINGER
GATES MILLS
In the moments following Emily Wilson’s goal in the final minute of the first half, it was easy to imagine the Canfield girls lacrosse team was going to gain the belief it belonged and the real battle was set to begin.
The Cardinals never quite gained that belief and surrendered a pair of goals in the opening minutes of the second half in falling, 9-5, to Hawken in a Division II, Region 6 regional semifinal at Walton Stadium.
“I think [the girls] came in knowing they were the underdogs, but we’ve won before being the underdogs, so that’s not an excuse,” Canfield coach MeLynda Guerrieri said. “They were [beginning to believe], though I don’t think they were 100 percent convinced. They knew [the momentum] could switch back quickly. It did.”
Hawken (13-5) will play Chagrin Falls in the regional final at 6 p.m. Friday at Hudson High School.
Canfield’s historic season come to an end. The Cardinals (15-4), who had never advanced to even the second round of the tournament, competed with the best teams in the region and learned a few things along in just the third year of the program’s existence as a varsity sport.
“I think this will be really valuable,” Guerrieri said. “They now know why, at the start of the year, we stress fundamentals instead of jumping into the more complicated things. That was a hard lesson for them tonight. They should go into next year knowing we got this and that they can go further. To this point, every team we played in the playoffs was a team we’ve never played before. It was a little bit of the fear of the unknown. Now, they can’t say that. Those things are really big. We’re a growing program heading into Year 4. With that confidence, they can be phenomenal.”
The Cardinals got goals from Elena Martin and Tara Santoro in playing to a 2-2 draw through the fist 10 minutes of the game. After falling behind, 3-2, Isabella Kelty knotted the score, 3-3, with 4:43 remaining in the first half. Wilson netted her goal to put Canfield ahead, 4-3, with 30 seconds left in the half.
“We went in pretty strong, but our fundamentals were on and off,” Kelty said. “We needed to stay consistent. Things do snowball usually. I thought we kept our heads up. The crowd was loud. The [Hawken bench] was loud. We kept our cool the best we could.
The Hawks scored the first four goals of the second half — two in the first 1:22 — in taking control of the contest.
“I think at that point (two minutes into the second half), some of the girls got in their heads,” Canfield midfielder Athena Poullas said. “That’s hard to come back from. I started to think it was anyone’s game. They got one and it died. Even if we got just one goal, it would’ve gotten the adrenaline going and it’s easy to pick up from there.”
Santoro added a goal for Canfield before Hawken netted the final two tallies of the contest.
“They were fast,” Canfield defender Ally Wilson said. “Their cuts were not what we were used to.”