Senior Katie Cosgrove scored five goals, including both the go-ahead tally late in the first half and the clincher after their opponent closed to within a goal midway through the second half as Churchville-Chili defeated Hilton 11-9 in girls’ lacrosse.
Duke bound Cosgrove opened the scoring at 6:08 when she stepped around the defender. Junior Meredith Woo took a pass in the slot from Nina Orlowski and scored two minutes later to stake the Saints to a 2-0 lead.
Hilton rebounded with three consecutive scores with sophomore Amanda Hilderbrandt starting the rally with a goal at 8:42. 67 seconds later they tied the game before Jenna Ricotta gave them a 3-2 lead with an assist from Carrighan Dalle.
The teams exchanged goals before Cosgrove scored twice in the 23rd minute of the first half to give the Saints the lead for good.
Early second half tallies from Kayla Wiest and LeMoyne commit and senior Orlowski staked the Saints to an 8-4 two minutes in the half, but it was short-lived.
Hilton rallied with three unanswered goals over the next ten minutes to close to within one. Ricotta scored with an assist from Brianna Tuchey, Hilderbrandt put in a rebound from a Payton Cook shot and Hilderbrandt scored again off a rebound to make it 8-7 with ten minutes remaining.
But Cosgrove netted her fourth unassisted at 16:09 and, after Hilton’s Sydney Carpenter scored a pretty backhand goal, scored again from 12 yards out after forcing the Cadets turnover.
Orlowski scooted around a defender and scored to give the Saints a three-goal cushion before Hilton’s Hilderbrandt netted her fourth of the contest to close out the scoring.
“We have a lot of talent, but there has been some coaching turnover and we have only been able to practice in the gym aside from scrimmages and games,” Saints head coach Matt Kleehammer said.
Churchville-Chili goalie Paulina Goodemote made 13 saves in net while Orlowski won seven draws and Cosgrove six for the 1-1 Saints.
In addition to Cosgrove and Orlowski, senior Cheyenne Clark will play for the University of Albany this fall while classmates Ilia Bagley and Skylar Burgess will be teammates at Canisius.
