Butler girls lacrosse tops McDowell
BUTLER TWP — Saturday’s first half was a grind for the Butler girls lacrosse
team.
Teamwork led to a Golden Tornado takeover.
Butler and Erie McDowell were tied 3-3 at halftime and the
deadlock continued until the Tornado’s Michelle Riesmeyer scored with 15:56
remaining to spark a 7-0 run in a 9:04 span on the way to a 10-5 non-section
victory at Art Bernardi Stadium.
Bailey Kraus tallied three of her four goals during the surge
and set up Riesmeyer for the go-ahead goal. The senior pointed to the defense
as a catalyst for the offensive outburst.
“We all worked together as a team,” said Kraus. “I remember
Melissa (Bartley), one of our best defenders, she had a great defensive play,
she got a charge and worked it down the field. I think it starts at the
defensive end.
“We all talked at halftime and decided that we had to work as
a team because no one could do it alone.”
Megan Crawford, a junior, opened the scoring with a goal less
than two minutes into the game. She finished with four goals to tie Kraus for
the game high.
“Every game, they’re ready to go. They work hard all
year-round and it really shows,” said Butler coach Annie Tigano of Kraus and
Crawford. “They both can pass and have really good stick work. They do a good
job.”
Krysta Moore found the back of the net for Butler’s final
goal with 6:52 to play, supplying the Tornado a 10-3 cushion.
Despite the daunting deficit in the Trojans’ second game of
the day, McDowell (1-8) continued to battle and Brianna Murosky scored with
3:58 to go and Tina Skelly converted the final goal with 1.9 seconds left on
the clock.
“The good thing about them being so young is they’re really
ambitious and they don’t give up. I’ve never seen this team once give up,” said
McDowell coach Marissa Rosenbaum, who lost 15 seniors from last year’s squad.
“We played earlier today against Moon and pretty much got smoked, but they were
still going out and putting up a fight today even when the game was out of
reach.”
In her first career varsity start, McDowell sophomore goalie
Kara Olsen kept the Trojans within reach for much of the game by stopping eight
of the first 11 shots she faced.
“She really came out and was really, really impressive,” said
Rosenbaum. “She was explosive and had confidence that we needed in our goalie.
I can’t ask for more.”
However, Butler (6-8) eventually broke through in a big way.
“We talked about some things we worked on in practice, got
through some things and they took it from there,” said Tigano. “We have a lot
of speed and we can move the ball pretty quickly when we’re looking to do that.”
The victory snapped a recent skid and gives Butler some
momentum heading into critical section games at Vincentian Academy Tuesday and
at home against Hampton Saturday.
“It absolutely is a confidence boost because we need to win
some games next week to go to the playoffs,” said Tigano. “It’s good to go into
those games with a win.”
As a senior, Kraus certainly hopes to end her Butler career
in the postseason.
“The last couple games have been tough. Today we just kind of
proved to ourselves that we can catch and we can throw,” Kraus said. “We have
to work together and depend on each other to get it down the field and get it
to the goal.
“Hopefully, we’ll have some playoffs,” she added. “I love my
team.”