Girls lacrosse
First half surge lifts Amherst over Williamsville East

Williamsville East's Casey Lanighan advances the ball during second half action against Amherst. Photo by Jim Smerecak Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

In a crucial ECIC Division III girls lacrosse contest, Amherst Central defeated Williamsville East, 17-7, on Monday, April 30. At the time, Amherst was 5-0 in league play and East was 4-1.

Amherst started the scoring right off the draw with an unassisted goal by Abbie Gowen 30 seconds into the game. Daisy Timlin tallied the next goal less than a minute later. Daisy's younger sister, Lily Timlin, followed with another goal and 33 seconds after that, a four-goal scoring spree occurred in the next four minutes.

It began with two goals from Jodi Battaglia (Simon assist on both) within 38 seconds of each other. The Timlin sisters also each found the back of the net again with Daisy scoring off a feed from Abbie Gowen and Lily scoring from Simon.

The teams traded possession for the remainder of the half. Amherst's defense was able to stop East's scoring drives with disciplined sliding defense at one end while their transition game and attack flourished.

Amherst Central's Brianne Burton, right, tries to maneuver around Williamsville East's Emily Williams during the Lady Tigers' 17-7 home victory on Monday, April 30. Photo by Jim Smerecak Purchase color photos at www.BeeNews.com

Amherst's midfield and low defense was led by Brianne Burton, Ellen Janicki, Meagan Hurley, Elana Korn, and Christine Domres.

Danielle Pizzuto, Sarah Heidinger, Kayla Brand, Cydney Kramer all did a great job keeping the Lady Flames attack in check, said coach Battaglia.

With 16:27 left in the half, Simon scored from Daisy Timlin. Other Amherst goals in the first half were scored by Burton on an unassisted one-on-one drive to the net at 13:43, and two more goals by Jodi Battaglia from Gowen at 10:44 and from Katie Erbacher at 5:26.

Williamsville East scored their first goal with 2:34 left in the half from Sarah DiPofiand Lauren Latona followed with another goal.

Daisy Timlin closed out the scoring in the first half making the halftime score, 12-2.

Each team scored five goals in the second half.

Scoring for the Lady Tigers were Daisy Timlin (unassisted), Jodi Battaglia (Gowen), Kristin Scaringi (Erbacher), Simon (Erbacher), and Lily Timlin (unassisted).

Scoring for East in the game were Brittni Hargis (three goals), Latona (two goals), DiPofi(goal, two assists), and Emily Dehlinger (goal, assist). East took advantage of penalties on Amherst to score four goals off free position shots.

Amherst also worked together to collect 26 ground balls and caused 11 turnovers. Burton and Casey Martin each collected three ground balls.

Amherst goaltenders Ellie Poleon and Erin Edson split time in net. Poleon played the entire first half and some of the second half, turning back four shots on eight attempts. Edson turned back three of six shots.

"Patient offense and strong, stingy defense were evident throughout the game for the Lady Tigers to secure this important league win," said coach Battaglia.

On Tuesday, May 1, Amherst traveled to Iroquois to pick up a 15-5 league win.

The Lady Tigers jumped out to a three-goal lead in the first four minutes on a goal by Gowen (Daisy Timlin) and two goals from Simon (Jodi Battaglia and Gowen assisted on different goals).

Iroquois scored twice to bring it to 3-2 at the 18:00 mark but Amherst went on a scoring spree, tallying eight goals over the next 15 minutes. Goals came from Lily Timlin (Jodi Battaglia), Erbacher (Gowen), Daisy Timlin (unassisted), Jodi Battaglia (Gowen), Simon (Gowen), Gowen (Jodi Battaglia), and Simon (Gowen).

Iroquois closed out the first half scoring a goal with 43 seconds remaining to make it 10-3.

In the second half, Iroquois scored a goal off the draw at 24:45 but Amherst responded with five second half goals. Lily Timlin scored at 24:01 off a free position shot. Gowen scored from Erbacher at 23:51 and from Jodi Battaglia at 16:44, respectively. Jodi Battaglia scored unassisted at 12:29 and Scaringi scored from Jodi Battaglia at 6:31.

Poleon allowed four goals on nine shots. Edson turned back all shots. The goaltending and defense held Iroquois to one goal in the second half.

"Again the low defense worked hard to make Iroquois earn their goals," said coach Battaglia.

Gowen leads all Amherst players with 36 goals and 57 assists. Jodi Battaglia is second with 31 goals and 12 assists. Simon (27 goals, nine assists), Daisy Timlin (23 goals, eight assists) and Lily Timlin (14 goals, three assists) also have contributed on offense.

Amherst played East Aurora on Monday, May 7 and East on Tuesday, May 8 but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press. Amherst plays at Eden at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 10 and travel to Section V Honeoye Falls-Lima on Friday, May 11. Wins in league play would clinch the division.

Williamsville East

East rebounded from the Amherst loss on Wednesday, May 2 against a strong Grand Island team, winning 9-7.

The Lady Flames took an early 4-0 lead and held that lead throughout despite taking many penalties and playing sloppy. East had a hard time controlling ground balls in the wet and overly long grass at Grand Island, but worked well on defense to maintain control of the game from start to finish.

Emily Williams paced the Lady Flames with five goals. DiPofiscored twice and Hargis and Lauren Hall each had a goal and assist. Latona assisted three other goals and Lauren LaPoint and Dehlinger each assisted once.

The Lady Flames played well again on Thursday, May 3 against rival South, winning 9-5.

East's lineup featured seven new starters as many regular starters got a break against South. (East won the last game by 11 goals.) Williams scored six times against Amherst. Latona (goal, assist), Hall and Dehlinger (goal each) and Casey Lanighan, Claire Scheidemann, Jenny Berger, Erica Sizemore and Aleece Burgio (assist each) also contributed to the offense.

South coach Jessica Gunning said the East game was a perfect example of how the team has grown together throughout the season.

"In our first match-up, East won a convincing victory against us," Gunning said. "(This game) we came out and scored the first goal and were leading the game for much of the first half. The second half created a little more of a goal deficit, but it was a very well played game by both teams."

Juniors Grace Dedebo, Alyssa Aschcroft and Nicole DeSimone provided excellent play. Solid offense was provided by Caitlin Kelly and great off ball play was shown by senior Katie Allen.

South also played East Aurora on Tuesday, May 1 but were missing many students as a result of the bomb threat at South earlier in the day. South lost 13-6.

"Despite that disadvantage, the girls played an outstanding game and improved a ton from the previous Friday when they had played East Aurora and been defeated by over ten goals," said Gunning.

Gunning said South goaltender freshman Krista Pomeroy kept the team in both games.

South closes out the regular season at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 10 at Eden and at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 12 at Williamsville North. They hosted Eden on Tuesday, May 8 but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press.

Through the South game, Williams leads all East players in scoring with 35 goals and nine assists. Behind Williams is Hargis (25 goals, nine assists), Dehlinger (11 goals, 11 assists), Latona (10 goals, 10 assists), DiPofi(10 goals, eight assists), Alina Swierski (four goals, four assists), Brugio (four goals, three assists), Erika Flashner (four goals, three assists), Hall (two goals, five assists), Sizemore (goal, two assists), Alyssa Drozynski (three assists), Claire Schiedemann (two assists), Lauren LaPoint (two assists), Jenny Berger (assist) and Lanighan (assist).

East's game against Eden on Tuesday, May 1 was postponed until Friday, May 11 due to bus problems in Eden. The Lady Flames (7-4, 5-2) played Amherst on Tuesday, May 8 but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press. They host East Aurora at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 10.