Girls lacrosse: Barrington avenges Hersey loss to win MSL championship
Friday's MSL girls lacrosse championship game brought windy conditions to the pitch at Hersey's Roland Goins Stadium with gusts up to 30 miles per hour as both the hosts and Barrington's teams would do battle.
Unfortunately, the Arlington Heights school's Thor-Guard weather detection system went off at the 5:45 mark of the first quarter of the girls game with the Fillies up 3-2. At that moment, a two-hour lightning delay took place.
When it did, both teams returned to the Stadium with a mix of joy and exuberance ready to resume play when the official announcement to restart the contest was made.
When the game finally ended, it would be the visiting Fillies who maintained their joy and exuberance as they held up the conference championship trophy with a 13-5 win. The victory not only moved their record to 17-1 on the season but also avenged a Monday loss at Goins to the Huskies who entered Friday's contest as winners of 9 of their last 13 after staring the season 4-5.
"We absolutely needed it (the Monday loss). It put a fire in them and they were ready to come out and work hard," Barrington coach Addie Dieckmeyer said.
"The main thing we talked about was playing as a unit. Being one. If one person makes a mistake that's on everybody. So we just fight through that and play as a unit."
Barrington never trailed as senior middie Elle Kondraros got the Fillies off to the lead with 3 of her 4 goals in the first period before play was halted.
Senior attacker Avery Ciaglia (4 goals) picked up the lacrosse stick for Barrington and connected on the first of her 3 tallies just five seconds into the game's restart that helped them take a 5-2 lead after one.
After goals from junior attacker Ellie Cataldo and freshman middie Brielle Perrault pulled Hersey (13-8) within 5-4 at the 9:24 mark of the second period, the Fillies went on a 5-0 surge the rest of the quarter that began and ended with Ciaglia's second and third scores.
It would leave them comfortably ahead 10-4 at the break.
Junior middie Emma Menke also added a trio of tallies for the Fillies who host Warren Monday to finish the regular season.
Senior attacker Berkeley Hwang joined Perrault leading Hersey, who won the MSL's single division title, with two goals apiece.
As a result of the weather delay, the MSL boys championship match between the West Division champion Broncos and the East Division champion Huskies will be played at 6 p.m. Monday at Hersey. Both squads are 13-4 overall.