LEHMAN TWP. – If the Lake-Lehman girls have been peeking ahead at Tuesday’s Wyoming Valley Conference girls lacrosse matchup against Wyoming Seminary, their performance has been disguising it well.
The Black Knights continued to overwhelm nearly every opponent on their path toward the 5 p.m. home game that likely will determine the WVC title.
Even playing against a rival with a winning record in the Old Stick Game could not derail Lake-Lehman.
Alicia Galasso scored four goals while Kate Roberts and Hallie Jenkins added three each in Monday’s 15-4 romp over Dallas at Eddie Edwards Stadium.
“I don’t want them to look any further than the next game,” sasid Lake-Lehman coach Ron Strohl. “If they look too far ahead, then they forget where they are right now and game plans are different from team to team.”
After winning again Tuesday, Lake-Lehman was tied with Wyoming Seminary at 8-0 with three games remaining.
Both teams were on long runs of success, with the exception that Lake-Lehman had not yet solved Wyoming Seminary.
Since losing to Dallas early in the 2016 season, Lake-Lehman is 0-2 in WVC games against five-time defending champion Wyoming Seminary and 27-0 against the rest of the conference.
Wyoming Seminary is on a 43-game conference winning streak that carries all the way back to early in the 2015 season. The Blue Knights also beat the Black Knights in last season’s District 2 final.
Lake-Lehman, which won Division 2 titles in 2015 and 2016 before the WVC reverted back to one combined league last season, is averaging more than 17 goals per game against District 2 opposition this year as it prepares to take another shot at its first win against the dominant local program.
Showing its concentration on the games leading up to the showdown for conference supremacy, Lake-Lehman made adjustments that broke up an early standoff with Dallas and resulted in seven straight goals for an 8-1 lead.
“We kind of recognized that they were just trying to hold the ball,” Strohl said. “They weren’t really in a strong transition.
“We felt that if we could adjust to their runs and play a little bit of a trap, we could get the ball back a little bit more and control our end of the field. In some cases, it worked for us.”
Once it regained possession, Lake-Lehman converted quickly in the scoring spree, which included three goals by Galasso and two goals and an assist from Jess Evans.
“I think we just picked up our heads and looked for the transitions and the passes,” Galasso said.
Lake-Lehman goalie Grace Butler, who made 10 saves, shut down a Dallas resurgence that featured goals late in the first half and early in the second half by Lauren Delamater to close within, 8-3.
The Black Knights then went back on the offensive.
Evans, who had a game-high three assists, and Samantha Aben finished with two goals each. Roberts added an assist to her hat trick.
“We pass the ball more than we did last year,” said Galasso, a four-year starter on the attack who has seen her own scoring and the team’s scoring increase this season. “ … The thing with our team is we just have so many scorers.”
And, according to Strohl, so many passers.
“Now, they understand to move the ball,” Strohl said. “They can control their own pace. They can control their own plays.
“They realize they can’t win by themselves, so they’ve become reliant on their teammates.”
Mindy Ratchford had the other two Dallas goals.
