High School Girls Lacrosse:
Shawnee Outruns Cherokee 15-9

Friday, April 7, 2000

By Gary Steiner
SJSports Staff Writer

The Lady Renegades of Shawnee traveled to Marlton to continue their rivalry with the Lady Chiefs of Cherokee. The last time these two teams met was when Shawnee defeated the Lady Chiefs 14-5 in the second round of last year's playoffs. Even though the Lady Chiefs were hurting after a surprise loss to Collingswood on Wednesday, they looking forward to taking out their frustrations on the rival Lady Renegades. But Shawnee was able to outrun Cherokee, coming away with an important 15-9 win.

Cherokee opened the scoring with a goal by Kaitlyn Cuneo at the 23:17 mark. The bal would travel back and forth between both ends of the field before Hillary Fay put the Lady Renegades on the board at 18:45. Erica Durst put Shawnee up one at 15:08, but Cherokee responded with a goal by Megan Curran 29 seconds later to tie things up. Coach Rudderow called a timeout to give some advice to her Lady Renegades. They responded with a goal from Lauren Ferrara at 14:16. But Cherokee would again tie it up when Curran scored her second at 12:03. At 7:53, Durst started Shawnee on a roll, as they would score five unanswered goals (Durst, Fay, Kate Gilland -2, Ashley Brinster) to go up 8-3 at the half.

Cherokee was getting their shots, but Shawnee goalie Liz Borucki was making some excellent saves. The second half opened much like the first, with both teams turning the ball over, running back and forth but not getting good opportunities for shots. Kristyn Minnick would open the second half scoring for Cherokee at the 21:09 mark off of a free position. Less than a minute later, Amy Coles flung one in off of a great overhand pass from Cuneo. Shawnee called a timeout to settle things down, which seemed to help as Gilland scored next by bouncing one in at 18:27. Cherokee came back at 16:56 when Hye Won Lee scored off of a pas from Melissa Ambricco. But Shawnee would pace Cherokee goal for goal the rest of the half, and the Lady Chiefs were never able to close up the gap.

Rounding out the scoring for Cherokee were Cuneo and two from Minnick. For Shawnee, it was Ferrara with two, Fay, Durst, and two more from Gilland.

Photos by Forrest Robleto