Girls lacrosse
Amherst defeats East Aurora, clinches ECIC III title

Amherst Central won at East Aurora, 18-8, on Monday, May 7 to win its seventh division title in nine years.

"Although we beat them handily the first game, going to East Aurora always presents a different emotional environment for the match-up, and we wanted to take the field with the same sense of setting the tone right off the bat as we did in the first game. I think we accomplished our goal," said Amherst coach Janet Battaglia.

Coach Battaglia said her team started out strong with Jodi Battaglia scoring two quick goals off feeds from Abbie Gowen less than two minutes into the game. A minute later, East Aurora scored on a free position goal tightening the score to 2-1. An East Aurora goal off another free position at the 17:48 mark made it 4-2, but that would be the closest they would get to the Lady Tigers. Gowen took control and had a part to play in the next six goals over a 13-minute span, scoring three of her own and assisting on three others. Jodi Battaglia, Amy Simon and Daisy Timlin rounded out the scoring to give Amherst a 10-2 lead by halftime.

During the first half, the goalkeeping play of Ellie Poleon and the defensive efforts of the entire team kept the East Aurora attack in check, said coach Battaglia.

Amherst came out strong in the second half, scoring five times in less than 10 minutes.

"Draw controls caused turnovers in the defensive end, and transition passing made for great possessions that led to a strong settled attack," said coach Battaglia.

Lily Timlin scored twice and Kristin Scaringi notched one late for second-half goals.

East Aurora came back with an offensive charge in the second half, scoring goals at the 12:46 and 7:09 marks and finishing with four goals in the last two minutes of play.

The two teams will meet in the Section VI Class C finals at Amherst on Thursday, May 31.

Gowen led Amherst with 10 points (four goals, six assists). Simon scored four times and assisted another goal. Jodi Battaglia had four points (three goals, assist). Daisy Timlin scored three times.

Poleon made 10 saves.

On Tuesday, May 8, Amherst traveled to Williamsville East and won 17-5. Amherst jumped out to a 3-0 start with goals from Jodi Battaglia, Daisy Timlin and Gowen. East's Emily Williams made the score 3-1 at about the 17:00 mark of the first half before the Lady Tiger attack exploded with great offense, as those mentioned before, along with Simon and Katie Erbacher, combined for 10 more first-half goals. Amherst led 13-1 at halftime.

Alexis Scime, Scaringi and Lily Timlin all tallied in the second half while the Tigers' defensive unit was stingy, holding East to three second-half goals.

"All Amherst defenders were strong on the field and did a great job of taking care of Ellie Poleon (five saves) and Erin Edson (three saves) in net," said coach Battaglia.

Williams finished with two goals and Brittni Hargis had three goals and two assists for East. Jenny Berger and Aleece Burgio recorded assists.

Amherst closed out the league portion of its schedule with a win over Eden.

Daisy Timlin scored her 100th career goal on a nice drive to cage, getting a feed from Gowen and shooting to the high corner of the goalie's weak side for the sixth goal of the game. Ali Medinic recorded her first career hat trick.

Edson posted a shutout in net.

Twelve different attackers added to the victory. Taylor Manahan (two goals), Casey Martin (goal, assist) and Brianne Burton (two goals) each added to the offense with strong performances. Defensively, Amherst did a nice job of sliding and communicating to shut down the Eden attack, said coach Battaglia.

"The Eden win was nice to finish with, as one of our early season goals was to have a strong showing in the division," added coach Battaglia.

Amherst closed out the week on Friday, May 11 with an 11-8 loss at Honeoye Falls-Lima, another Class C school with a similar record.

Amherst's defense started strong by stopping the Cougars' first two settled drives and transitioning the ball up the field to allow Daisy Timlin to connect with Gowen for the first goal of the game three minutes in.

Amherst's defense and goalkeeper were presented with a strong attack and held their own nicely to keep the game that way until HFLscored their first goal five minutes later.

Amherst's turnovers in the midfield and dropped passes in the attacking end plagued them for most of the remainder of the first half, and HFLjumped out to a 5-1 lead.

After hitting the pipes on a shot and two dropped feeds in the 8-meter, Amherst played from behind and not composed, said coach Battaglia. Settling a bit near halftime and taking better care of the ball created an opportunity for Gowen to find Jodi Battaglia for two nice goals before the half, making it 6-3 HFL.

"The low defense played very well and we were up against one of the physically stronger attacking teams they had faced all season," said coach Battaglia. "Although their settled offense was not overly crafty or stellar, the physical strength of HFLwas more than we have had to deal with locally. When they drove to cage they were strong coming through. Our defense did an impressive job of keeping them out on many occasions."

HFLcame out of the gates quickly in the second half, scoring twice.

"We could have dropped our shoulders right there as things were not going our way," said coach Battaglia. "We took a few rough calls from the officials, an apparent no goal and some turnovers to deflate us and propel HFL. Thankfully, we shook that off and finally found our confidence and desire to score five more goals, making the remainder of the game respectable."

Coach Battaglia said the game was needed at this point of the season.

"It caused us to see that the stronger, faster team and the team that values possession is the team that will most likely win the game," she said. "We seemed to have been taking that for granted. It exposed us to game conditions that we had not faced."

"Statistically, we shot 75 percent - a great percentage - we just didn't hang on to the ball to shoot often enough," she continued.

Coach Battaglia said Brianne Burton had one of her best efforts of the season, as did Meagan Hurley and Christin Domres.

Gowen led Amherst with three goals and three assists. Jodi Battaglia and Daisy Timlin had two goals and one assist each. Simon scored once. Poleon made 10 saves in net.

Amherst closes out its regular season schedule with a nonleague home game at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 23 against Clarence. Senior recognition will occur before and after the game. Amherst played Mt. St. Mary's and Nichols on Monday, May 14 and Nichols on Tuesday, May 15 but results of both were unavailable before The Bee went to press.