Sharpshooting Kilbourne takes state title
The Worthington Kilbourne girls lacrosse team is filled with players who pride themselves on being sharpshooting goalscorers.
The Wolves flaunted their marksmanship during a 17-7 victory over Cincinnati Indian Hill in the Division II final yesterday at New Albany, scoring 17 goals on 19 shots.
“We focus on our shooting every day in practice, and we’re typically a good shooting team,” Kilbourne coach Doug Troutner said. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well in the first half of our state semifinal (a 16-11 victory over Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown on Friday), so we really focused on placing our shots and making their goalie move, rather than taking early shots.
“Our girls definitely had an exceptional game shooting the ball.”
Kilbourne (17-3) won its first state championship after losing in the championship game last year and losing in a state semifinal in 2012.
Kara Hines had six goals, Miriam Bassani three goals and two assists, Allison Martz four goals and Maggie Baumgardner and Grace Cameron two goals each.
“We spend a lot of time working on finding open lanes and placing the ball when we shoot, and it really paid off for us,” Hines said.
“This is huge for our team because we came so close to winning state the past two years, and that just made us want this even more.”
Kilbourne’s fortunes ebbed and flowed in the first half. The Wolves took a 3-0 lead on goals by Hines, Baumgardner and Martz.
But they struggled to win draws and fell behind 4-3 as Gabi Gibson and Elena Horton each scored twice for Indian Hill.
After a timeout with 10:08
“Our girls definitely had an exceptional game shooting the ball.” — Doug Troutner, Kilbourne coach
remaining, the Wolves went on a 5-1 run to take an 8-5 halftime lead, as Martz scored three goals and Bassani and Hines two each in the first half.
“We knew we could score a lot of goals, but they are an offensive force, as well, so we talked about winning draws and playing better defense during our timeout in the first half,” Troutner said.
“We played much better after that.”
Indian Hill scored back-toback goals to cut its deficit to 10-7 with 20:08 remaining before the Wolves scored seven straight goals.
Addy Boyles had four saves and Alexis Greer two for Kilbourne, which dominated possession throughout the second half.
Gibson and Horton each scored three goals for Indian Hill (17-4).
“It was tough to slow down their fast break because they just had a really skilled offense,” Indian Hill coach Katie Post said. “They adjusted their defense to slow down our fast break. I definitely wish more draw controls would have gone our way.”