The Bartram Trail girls lacrosse team is headed back to the state championship game.
The Bears erased a halftime deficit and used the familiar duo of Ryann Frechette and Madi Stevens to deliver a 6-5 win over Vero Beach in the Class 2A state semifinals in Naples on Friday. Bartram (17-5), led by first-year head coach Megan O’Grady, will face either Parkland Douglas or Tampa Plant at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday for the title. Bartram has won back-to-back state championships.
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The Bears are the lone area team to reach the final this year. The Bolles boys lost to Benjamin 19-7 on Thursday, and the Episcopal girls lost to Delray Beach American Heritage 17-3 earlier Friday.
Frechette, the reigning Miss Lacrosse and All-News4JAX player of the year, scored the final two goals, including the eventual winner with 11 minutes, 45 seconds to play. Frechette came up with the ball after the faceoff to start the final quarter and took it the distance, weaving through traffic and splitting three defenders near the net to put Bartram up 6-5.
From there, it was last year’s championship star Stevens, who was a wall in goal in the final quarter. She made her two biggest saves in the final 25 seconds to stifle Vero. Stevens had a similar finish in last year’s championship game win over St. Thomas Aquinas to preserve the title.
Esa Brenneman and Emily Barnette were the stars early. They combined for the first three goals before Brenneman tied things at 4-all with 4:52 to go in the third quarter. Vero retook the lead not long after before Frechette notched the final two.