A young Wyoming Area girls lacrosse teams is quickly putting a slow start in the rear-view mirror.
The Lady Warriors knocked off one Wyoming Valley Conference unbeaten with Monday’s 9-7 victory over Scranton Prep, then tied the other when they remained even with defending champion Crestwood, 16-16, through two overtimes Thursday.
Wyoming Area improved to 5-1-1 in the WVC and 6-1-1 overall.
There have been major strides since the team lost its opener, 11-5, to Wyoming Seminary and had to squeeze out one- and two-goal victories in the first three games of what is now a seven-game unbeaten streak.
“We have a young team and when we played our first game, we had only had two first full-field outdoor practices because of weather,” Wyoming Area coach Carl DeLuca said of an 18-player roster that includes 11 first-year players, nine of them freshmen.
The Lady Warriors have learned fast and gotten leadership from Sofia Sabatini, who recently made it through a tryout process of more than 100 players to land a spot on the Philadelphia Girls Team for the National Lacrosse Tournament in June.
Wyoming Seminary 16, Crestwood 16
Sofia Sabatini scored seven goals in Thursday’s tie.
“We knew they were going to try to double her and they did right off the bat, so she had kind of a slow start,” coach Carl DeLuca said. “Every game, we have about five girls who score. We spread the ball around, which is nice.
“So, we started on working on some different things as they went to double Sabatini and we were able to do some give-and-go type of things.
“That’s been working very well for us. Then, once they know they can’t double her because we have some things working, it gets more one-on-ones for Sofia.”
Julia Gonzales added four goals and an assist.
Halle Kranson, who had two assists, and Brianna Braccini scored twice each.
Wyoming Seminary 9, Scranton Prep 7
Sofia Sabatini scored four goals and Halle Kranson had two, then Wyoming Area successfully controlled the ball over the final five minutes of the game, which was played at Tenth Street Field in the rain.
Sabatini and Kranson scored in the last minute of the first half, then Sabatini scored early in the second for a three-goal lead.
