Girls lacrosse: Hersey tops Barrington in inaugural MSL championship game
By Bill Esbrook
Daily Herald Correspondent
Kailee See and her Hersey teammates made history Thursday night.
The sophomore midfielder scored six times at Roland R. Goins stadium in Arlington Heights, the Huskies home turf, to lead her team to a victory in the first Mid-Suburban League girls lacrosse championship game.
Hersey defeated Barrington 12-10 to claim the win.
"Considering we've only had this team for like two years, and it came against a really tough team (the Fillies), this is just amazing," said See.
Huskies coach Mary Byrne certainly appreciated the persistent effort of See in the title match as Hersey improved to 11-1 on the year.
"She's very good," said Byrne. "She amps things up, she's competitive and is just kind of an all points type of player."
Barrington trailed 3-0 with less than five minutes gone in the contest, but rallied to make things interesting in the final stages.
"We knew coming in that Hersey was a tough team," said Fillies coach Charles Solomon. "We believed it was going to be a race to the end. We knew we'd be there at the end, we just had to keep flighting."
See scored four goals in the first half as Hersey took an 8-5 lead, then there was an extended halftime as the MSL all-conference players were announced.
The extra time at intermission didn't bother See -- who was one of six Huskies honored -- as the said with a laugh that she "didn't even realize" there would be an halftime ceremony until she got a text from her coach Thursday morning.
The sophomore midfielder opened the second half by playing helper, assisting on two early goals by junior attacker Kelsey Neary to make it 10-5 for the home team.
But the Fillies roared back, and when Elle Kondraros scored her fourth goal of the game with 5:37 remaining, they trailed by just two.
"Five minutes left," said See. "At that point we just had to keep going."
Barrington kept on the offensive and had several more chances, but a key steal at midfield by See kept the Fillies' comeback at bay.
Neary finished with 3 goals for the winners, while Caitlyn Malz scored twice.
"I'm very, very proud of this team," said Byrne. "They have a lot of heart, they put forth a lot of effort, and they've been working hard."
"We have a large group of seniors, eight of them, and they've led us this season by mentoring the younger players."
Mya Chhadia played a strong game for Barrington in the midfield, while teammate Lauren Hutchinson excelled on the defensive end.
Madison Powell and Isabella Benton each tallied two goals for the Fillies.
"This was a great game, and you've got to take your hats off to Hersey," said Solomon. "They played great."
"We've got to win more draws. The difference in the game tonight was in the draw circle. Hersey probably won 80% of the draws. If we could have gotten that to 50/50, it would have been a different game here tonight."
John Hersey High School