Baldwin caps successful year

The playoffs may be out of reach for the Baldwin Lady Bruins lacrosse team, but a strong finish to the season has many people excited for the future.

Baldwin won for the fourth time in six games by topping Carey 11-5 on Friday to push its Conference IV record to 6-2 and overall mark to 6-5. Tess Ferguson and Aisling Geraghty had three goals apiece and sophomore Megan Doyle added two goals and two assists to lead the Lady Bruins. 

But only the top two teams in the conference make the playoffs and those berths went to New Hyde Park (11-0) and Elmont (10-2.)  Baldwin gave the former a scare on April 11, outscoring the Lady Gladiators 4-2 in the second half before coming up short in a 7-6 decision.

“That was definitely one of our best games to date,” Baldwin coach Rebecca LaFlare said. “We were losing 5-2 at half, so to come back from that deficit was huge. They played amazing. I was really proud of them.”

The Lady Bruins were eliminated from playoff contention after a 10-8 loss at Elmont on May 2. They were already without junior star attacker Katle Kallamni and lost 22-goal scorer Emily Metzguer-Shiro about six minutes into the contest with an arm injury. Metzguer-Shiro had been on a tear of late with 14 goals in the four games entering the Elmont contest, including five in a 15-7 win over Plainview Old-Bethpage on April 30.

Led by senior Sarah Henry, the defense was exceptionally strong on Friday, keeping Carey scoreless throughout the entire first half. It was the third-lowest goals-against game of the season after yielding just one to Mineola on March 28 and four at Island Trees on April 5.

“Our defense takes the cake,” LaFlare said of the defensive corps. “My defense is my pride and joy. I’ve grown to love the zone defense and they made it so easy for me to teach it. Sarah Henry really helped me out also. She has molded the girls in the zone to be phenomenal defenders and I am so proud of my defense, hands down.”

Henry will be one of five seniors graduating next month along with Metzguer-Shiro, Henry, Geraghty, Sam Rodden, and goalie Kim Conforti. But junior Fabiola Belizaire and freshman Kaitlyn Trepeta are ready to take on bigger roles on defense next year and LaFlare said to look out for freshman Brianna Benoit as well.

“She’s been playing attack for Katie the past couple of games and she’s been great,” LaFlare said of Beniot. “She has great stick skills, she’s super-fast and she’s a great person for down on attack.”

Baldwin concluded the season with a makeup contest against Herricks on Wednesday after press time. No matter the result, LaFlare is “very happy” with this year’s results despite the huge roster turnover entering the campaign. 

“I’m very happy with the season,” LaFlare said. “This was definitely a rebuilding season and I’m so happy with the outcome. I couldn’t have asked for a better season.”