After two years of being the bridesmaid, the Garden City Varsity Girls lacrosse team returned to the top of the Nassau County lacrosse world. Entering the playoffs as the top ranked team in the county, the girls held of a feisty Wantagh squad 11-9, to win the Class B title. Having beaten the Class A Champs, Massapequa, and the Class C Champs, Manhasset, during the regular season, they can now lay claim to being the top team in the county.

It was a rainy and windy day, far from the conditions you would expect for a lacrosse game in the at of May, however, the girls would not let that deter them from their mission. After falling quickly behind 3-0 in the first five minutes, the girls settled down and showed their true mettle as the reeled of 7 unanswered goals (two apiece by Brittany Shannon, Katie Gardner and Katie Cox) to take a 7-3 lead into the halftime break.

The second half saw the girls come out and extend their lead as the offense and defense were clicking. But games have an ebb and flow and midway through the second half, the Warriors served notice that they were not ready to concede defeat. They slowly climbed back into the game. Facing furious pressure at the defensive end, defenders Caitlin Strain, Katie Piscopo and Allie McDonough were under siege, but valiantly turned back the tide. The key defender, however, turned out to be sophomore goalkeeper Emma Quailer who turned in the game of her life in making 9 saves, many of them from point blank range. Emma was a stone wall in the face of tremendous pressure during the last half of the game.

With the lead down to 2 goals, Caitlin Defleise won a critical draw control that gave possession to the Lady Trojans. Then, with the ball safely in their sticks, the girls perfectly executed the spread formation and rode out the remaining time on the clock.

The Garden City scoring was led by Brittany Shannon who had a game high 4 goals, two each by Katie Gardner, Katie Cox and Kara Kelly, and one by freshman Erin Brennan

For the Lady Trojans this marks the 10th time that they have been county champs in the past 12 years.

The team now moves on to the Long Island Championship this Thursday at 5:30 pm at Hofstra against the Suffolk County Champs from Rocky Point.