Girls lacrosse: Barrington works quickly to beat Carmel, get to graduation on time
With graduation looming, Barrington knew it had to get things done quickly in Gurnee.
The Fillies used an early start and powerful third quarter to beat Carmel 14-8 in the girls lacrosse sectional final at Warren. Barrington (21-1) exited Warren’s East Campus in plenty of time to make its 7 p.m. graduation ceremonies at Willow Creek in Hoffman Estates.
The Fillies, who won their first girls lacrosse sectional title, will have another appointment. Barrington will meet New Trier in the Stevenson supersectional at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“It is very exciting,” Barrington coach Addie Dieckmeyer said. “We are just a really committed team. They are great teammates to each other and come to practice mentally and physically prepared.”
The Fillies leaned heavily on Elle Kondraros early in the game. The senior, who finished with 6 goals, tallied the first four Barrington goals as the Fillies opened a 4-2 lead.
“The energy was way better than any game we have played before,” said Kondraros, who will play for Division II Maryville in St. Louis next season.
“It will be great to go to graduation. They will announce us as sectional champions.”
Carmel (15-6) battled to keep the game close but had trouble breaking through thanks to Barrington netminder Maya Arzate. The senior, who broke the 100 varsity save mark, stopped 6 first-half shots by Carmel and 9 for the game.
“It was a lot of work and I think my teammates added to it,” Arzate said. “The defense made the shots easy for me. It takes a lot of focus, but I am glad we made it through today.”
The Corsairs trailed 5-3 until the Fillies’ Avery Ciaglia scored with eight seconds left in the first half. That opened the floodgates for Barrington as the Fillies rattled off six unanswered goals in the third quarter. Emma Menke (4 goals), Kondraros and Ciaglia (3 goals) each scored twice to make it 12-3.
After a penalty to Barrington, Carmel ran off four unanswered goals to cut the lead to 12-7 with 10:27 to play. But the Corsairs could never get closer as Barrington’s Luciana Harmon scored down the stretch.
“Our girls have been working on this since November,” said Carmel coach Rich Cordova, in his first year as head coach at Carmel.
With its appearance in the sectional finals, Carmel advanced the furthest in school history. The Corsairs rallied from four goals down earlier this week to beat rival St. Viator to advance to the sectional finals.
“We don’t have the best sticks players. We don’t have the Cup players. We just have a bunch of girls who just love playing together. They are the wolf at the bottom of the hill. We are super hungry and we claw every day.”
Katie Booher scored 3 goals for Carmel. Maia Cordova, who was double-teamed throughout the game, scored twice while Molly Driessen, Kya Lasky and Abby Hannah each scored once.