Ithaca girls lacrosse repeats as Section IV champions

For the second straight season, the Ithaca High School girls lacrosse team ventured into uncharted territories down in Class B. It was more of the same this go-around with another plaque to proudly put on display.

On May 22, Ithaca took down Horseheads 16-4 in the Section IV Class B championship at Joe Moresco Stadium, making it back-to-back titles for the Little Red. The victory capped off an incredibly dominant run against Section IV opponents, going 9-1 and outscoring them by an average of 10 goals. Head coach Kaitlyn Hoffay pointed to a trio of aspects that make up their team motto—effort, attitude, and toughness—that’s been the foundation for another outstanding campaign.

“We’re coming into every day at practice and every game with that mentality of being the tougher team, making sure that we’re staying positive no matter what struggles we face or things that don’t go our way and how we’re responding to it, and then just absolutely giving our best every practice every game,” Hoffay said. “ I think that’s helped us be really successful this season.”

The Little Red’s lone loss to a Section IV team this season came against Horseheads in their regular season finale. How fitting that 11 days later they would face off once again with a sectional title on the line. This time, Ithaca made no mistake and put their foot firmly on the gas pedal.

“That last Horseheads game of the regular season, we just didn’t play our best game, and I think that was huge motivation going into the sectional final,” Hoffay said. “Adjustment-wise, we really just focused on playing our game, not worrying so much about what they were doing, and just making sure that we were executing our game plan. On offense, we’re playing simple. [On] defense, we weren’t adding a lot of face guards.”

The biggest aspect that stood out from the victory was their well-balanced attack. Ella Thomforde and Eleni Switzer each scored four goals, eighth grader Ava Fontaine netted a hat trick, Reese Montivero-Cole and Sage Bliss each scored twice, and Emma Bakos rounded out the onslaught with a goal. The Little Red have prided themselves on having many attacking threats all season long.

“It’s really, really important for us,” Hoffay said. “I think it was our best game of the season in terms of that. Obviously Ella is going to face some difficult defenders. She’s going to face a lot of face guards. But it’s allowing other players on the team to really step up and show their own strengths and not really rely on somebody else to do the job. That’s been really fun to develop over the season.”

There’s plenty of reasons why Thomforde draws so much attention from opposing defenses. The junior stands out at five feet, ten inches tall, led the team in scoring with 55 goals, and has already committed to Stanford University to continue her lacrosse career.

“Her speed is just top-notch,” Hoffay said. “She’s very difficult to stop when she’s on the move. She’s tall. The left hand definitely contributes to that. When she’s going to goal, she’s going with a full head of steam, and she’s not really going to let anybody stop her from doing so.”

At the other end of the field, the Little Red have done equally as tremendous a job preventing goals. The junior tandem of Olivia Frazier and Alex Pasto have been reliable in net, while an experienced defense acts as a force field around the net.

“Normally, goalies in the girls game can run kind of thin and hard to find, but we’re really lucky to have that position pretty solid,” Hoffay said. “I think the veteran defenders have done great for us. Remy [Germain] was playing midfield and is stepping back into a defensive role now, and she’s really been tremendous in helping. Samara [Schwartz] actually took a season off and came back to play for us this year, and she’s just stepped up huge. And then Noam [Ben-Shlomo] has been with us for three years and has really found her spot leadership-wise on the back side. Kate Thomas has been really dominant for us.”

Connecting the two halves is a strong midfield consisting of Bakos, Fontaine, and Taylor Kerber.

Unfortunately for the Little Red, all good things must come to an end. On June 1, the Little Red fell to West Genesee 17-3, making it the second straight year they’ve been knocked out by the Wildcats in regionals.

The Little Red will make their triumphant return to Class A next season. If the past two campaigns are anything to go by, the Little Red will still be the team to beat in Section IV and in strong pursuit of their ultimate goal: reaching the state semifinals for the first time in program history.