Crossing the City

PaliHi Boys Defeat Birmingham, 12-7; Girls’ Comeback Falls Short in 6-5 Loss

Even though his team was considered the favorite heading into the City Section championship game, Palisades High first-year boys lacrosse coach Bryan Cuthbert wasn’t taking anything for granted. It’s difficult to defeat a good team three times in one season and the Dolphins were trying to do that against a Birmingham squad out for revenge on its home field.

In the end, however, PaliHi had too much will, too much skill and too much Nate Galper for the Patriots to overcome. Galper scored six goals and assisted on two others as the Dolphins prevailed 12-7 to become the first official City Champion.

“I thought we had potential at the start of the season but I knew this wasn’t going to be easy because Birmingham had something to prove and we had to beat them twice on their home field,” Cuthbert said. “Early in the game the ground ball percentages were 50-50  and they finished when they had shots. Our offense started to click a little in the second half but they kept coming at us. They fought us tooth and nail but we were able to put a few more goals on the board than them.”

The game was tied 3-3 after the first quarter, but goals by Kobi Hancz and Carlos Flores gave the Dolphins a 5-3 halftime lead. Evan Greene made 11 saves for PaliHi, which began to pull away in the fourth quarter. Andrew Davidson scored three goals and Hancz, Flores and Zane Daily each added one for the Dolphins.

“It got tougher each time we played them because they know how we play, but we know how they play too,” Galper said. “In the second half we were getting a lot of transition goals and they were getting a little frustrated. All of the Southern Section teams we played definitely prepared us  and we had to represent Pali because we were expected to win it.”

The Dolphins outscored Birmingham 4-1 in the final 12 minutes and scored the winning goal on a two-man advantage when Davidson passed to Galper for an 8-meter shot with 21 seconds left in the third quarter.

Earlier, in the inaugural City girls final, the Dolphins scored three times in the last eight minutes but couldn’t net the equalizer in a 6-5 loss to Birmingham.

“I can’t ask for anything more, we played to the last second,” said first-year coach Chelsea Treat, who held a meeting prior to the season to explain the rules to her players, many of whom were brand new to the sport. “We didn’t lose, we just ran out of time. I knew the girls had it in them to do this because they’ve practiced five days a week, three hours a day and they learned to play as a team.”

Evelyn Lopez scored three goals in the first half and Katherine Suarez added three goals in the second half for the Patriots, who took a seemingly insurmountable 5-2 lead with 12:30 left. However, Laura Sussman  scored on a bouncing shot to make it 5-3. Suarez tallied her final goal 43 seconds later, but Emily Tomimatsu answered a minute after to make it 6-4 and Liesel Staubitz scored her second goal with 4:30 left, setting up a frantic finish in which the Dolphins came close to tying it several times.

“We just started working together more in the second half, posting two people up in the middle and making smarter passes,” said Tomimatsu, a senior who wants to continue her career at Shenandoah, a Division III program in Virginia.

Staubitz scored PaliHi’s first goal less than five minutes into the second half and Jackie Sanett pulled the Dolphins within 4-2 at the 13:03 mark. The teams had split their regular season meetings, each winning on its home field.

“It was crazy at the end, but I try to handle it the best I could,” PaliHi goalie Katie Sabini said. “It was a toss up and we were hoping for the best, but I’m proud of what we did.”