2017-05-23 - Top seeded Brighton scored a four goal stretch to end the first half and begin the second half to defeat #8 seeded Irondequoit 9-6. Irondequoit led for a large portion of the first half, and remained competitive before Brighton began to pull away in the early second half.
Irondequoit opened up the scoring with an unassisted goal from Erika Sherwood. Sherwood finished with half the goals (3g). Less than one minute later, Brighton tied with an inside feed from Caroline Lederman to Rachel Wager. The Eagles kept up the pressure and went back up 2-1 with Maira Brennan assisting Marina Butler. Butler scored the other 3g for Irondequoit. Brighton trailed for four minutes before Rene Gangarosa scored the first of her 3g. She was one of the most prolific shooters of the night and Irondequoit goalie Lydia Fregosi made a number of strong saves against her and the Barons in general. She finished with 9 recorded saves. Butler scored her second off an 8m shot to put the Eagles back up for the third time.
Gangarosa scored the next two goals (both off 8m free position shots). The go-ahead goal began with a ground ball by Emma Little on the restraining line. She had a very heads up play to grab the ball from the Eagles and force it up to Gangaroa for a fast-break. The play was stopped with a shooting space and her 8m shot put the Barons up for the first time in the contest. Sherwood scored her second goal after a timeout with 0:22 remaining in the half. The play began near the midfield line and she finished with a drive down the middle of the field.
Brighton’s Piper Davis won the ensuing draw control and gave the Barons another chance at the goal. After grabbing the draw, she looked upfield to Kathryn Smolensky who found Lederman open near the 8m line. Another shooting space call, send Lederman to the line and she scored with 0:02 remaining. Brighton led 5-4 at the half. Brighton came out of the halftime strong and scored three unanswered goals to put them up 8-4. Lederman scored the first two. The opening goal was off an 8m pass from Wager to an open Lederman on the crease and the second was a dodge from the right side of the cage where she stepped inside her defenseman. Smolensky scored the first of her two goals of the night with a drive from the left side. Butler snapped the four goal scoring run with an unassisted goal with 17:15 remaining. Each team added one more goal in the final 12 minutes. For Irondequoit, Butler finished with 4 draw controls and Brennan with 2. For Brighton, Davis recorded 6. She also recorded 2 caused turnovers.
