Girls lacrosse: Warwick shows fight in Class B sub-regionals loss to powerhouse Queensbury

ACCORD — They played their hearts out.

Section 2's Queensbury defeated Warwick, 15-10, in a NYSPHSAA Class B girls lacrosse sub-regional game at Rondout Valley High School on Tuesday. With a delay due to excessive heat, the game was on a two-hour push, while waiting for the Class A matchup to finish up.

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Queensbury took an 8-2 halftime lead. But in the second half, the Wildcats showed fight after going down 10-2. They would score five straight goals, highlighted by Kiera Larney, Jillian Ziegler and Keira Mangels, on a slick pass from Brooke Sullivan and Larney again, cutting the deficit to 11-7. But the Spartans' Brigid Duffy would get back a pair, for a 13-7 score.

The Wildcats would go down fighting, against a team that has not lost a game in the last two years (29-0 over that span) and has dominated opponents all season long.

Larney would finish the game with a team-high six goals, in the midst of a breakout season.

“From last year to this year was one of my growing seasons, from the COVID-19 pandemic, and moving up as a junior and being a captain this year," she said. "I feel like it really transformed the team, but I couldn’t have done it without anybody else."

Senior Jillian Ziegler noticed something special about her team's chemistry in the postseason.

“I definitely think that in the playoff games we played as a team, rather than individually and that stood out a lot in the last two games," Ziegler said.

What it means

The Spartans will face Section 1 winner John Jay in a regional final matchup at Hendrick Hudson High School on June 4 at 12:30 p.m.. The winner of that game advances to the NYSPHSAA semifinals at SUNY Cortland on June 10.

Player of the game

Queensbury's Brigid Duffy scored a team-high six goals and added an assist. She was a force on offense and a key to her team's win. On the other hand, Warwick's Kiera Larney also scored a team-high six goals and kept her team in the game against a tough opponent.

By the numbers

Queensbury (15-0) — Brigid Duffy scored a team-high six goals and added an assist. Kady Duffy tallied three goals. Kendra Ballard and Meredith Montgomery each added two goals. Kaitlyn Barton and Delaney Donahue each had a goal and two assists. Lindsay Bauer made eight saves in net.

Warwick (15-4) — Kiera Larney scored a team-high six goals. Keira Mangels and Jillian Ziegler each added two goals. Brooke Sullivan had two assists and Kaitlyn Larney contributed one helper. Lily Mahoney made 11 saves in net.

Quotable

“Just how incredibly proud we were of them. And I said that after coming off last year, if you told me before the season started, you’re going to win a section championship and you’re going to play a team that hasn’t lost in two years, 15-10, and hold your own, that’s tremendous growth for the program. Every year we’ve gotten better in states. We scouted Queensbury, and they’re a tremendous team, they’ve won 29 in a row and most of the games they really blew out the competition and scored in the high-20s or mid-20s, and we had a couple of mistakes, but for the most part, we played our hearts out. I’m just so proud of them.” - Warwick coach Denis O'Connor on what he told his team after their sub-regional loss.

“Coming from a Section 9 team and playing a Section 2 school, we gave it our all. We knew going into this we were the underdogs, so we really had nothing to lose, so we just kind of gave it our all and teaches us a lot that we can compete at this kind of level, even though we sometimes think we can’t.” - Warwick co-captain Kiera Larney on what playing a Section 2 team meant.

MKramer1@th-record.com

Twitter: @MKramerTHR

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Section 9 girls lacrosse: Warwick shows heart in sub-regionals loss