Rockford girls lacrosse ends season with a 12-11 heartbreaker in state finals against Birmingham United

Julie Norwood | jnorwood@mlive.com, June 06, 2012 9:09 p.m.

Down 7-4 at the half, Rockford rallied for six goals to take the lead in the state finals. Birmingham United came back tying it up at 10-10. With 1:30 left to play and down by one goal, Rockford's Erika Neumen broke away for a last shot. Birmingham United's goalie made the save, though, and the Rams couldn't regain possession again. Neuman led her team with five goals and three forced turnovers.

"It was a close game," Rockford coach Mike Emery said. "One goal could have gone either way. It was well played on each side."

Rockford defeated Lansing Waverly/Catholic Central/Grand Ledge 17-8 to win regionals for the fifth straight year. They then topped Forest Hills United 17-14 last Thursday to advance from the semi finals.

"Our goal every year is to win the regionals and play in the state finals or semi finals," Emery said. "By the time you get to state, everyone is good. Today the ball didn't bounce our way."

Rockford ends their season with a 13-8-1 record.

"Earlier in the season we didn't play so well," Emery said. "We did everything we could to bring them together.

The Rams went on to a 7-2 winning streak bringing them up to tonight's final.

Rockford will return three all state players next year, Neuman (1st team), Kendal Carr (2nd team) and Meghan Datema (honorable mention).

"Our core will be back next year," Emery said. "We have a strong feeder program as well."

Rockford advances to girls lacrosse regional championship with 17-8 win over Lansing Waverly

Jen Judson | Advance Newspapers, May 30, 2012 10:22 p.m.

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Rockford's Kyleigh Egnatuk (8) charges toward the goalie as Waverly's Alyssa Albright (24) gives chase. - (ADVANCE photo by KAREN WAITE)

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Rockford's Kyleigh Egnatuk (8) looks for a team mate as Waverly's Alyssa Albright (24) defends. - (ADVANCE photo by KAREN WAITE)

ROCKFORD – With the possibility of home field advantage through the state finals, the Rockford girls’ lacrosse team is doing its best to get there. On Wednesday the Rams won their way to Friday night’s regional final with a 17-8 win over Lansing Waverly.

“Lansing Waverly is good competition,” said Rockford junior Erika Neumen who was responsible for scoring seven goals, getting eight draw controls and causing four turnovers. “We didn’t really play that good against West Ottawa (last week), but we can still come back and play good.”

Neumen led off the scoring with the team’s first two goals and had five in the first half. Rockford took the 3-0 lead on a goal by Kyleigh Egnatuk before Lansing even got on the scoreboard. Kendra Winiki pushed Rockford to 4-1 before the Warriors scored goal No. 2. Rockford proceeded to put away the next five goals with shots by Neumen, Carly Dew and Isabell Vickers who had two goals in the first half.

“Playoff season is a different season, and (Waverly) came out with a lot of intensity,” said Rockford coach Mike Emery. “That was probably the best game that I have seen Waverly play all year. We were able to match that, and we had some girls really come out and play well. Erika Neumen’s play really was the difference maker in the game tonight.”

In the second half, the two teams battled back and forth across the field through the first five minutes of play. At the 20-minute mark, Neumen broke the drought with the 11-4 Rockford lead. Meghan Datema, Egnatuk and Winicki got goals, before the Warriors caused a panic.

Once Rockford took the 14-4 lead, Waverly made their next four goals to 14-8. Neumen put an end to that streak though with her final goal of the night with 9:06 to play. Morgan Stage assisted that goal and then made one of her own at 5:01 for the 16-8 advantage. The team’s final score came from Rosemeri Morrison.

“They made a run,” said Emery, “but I think we answered that. They scored four goals and then we shut them down after that. They were doing some good things down there offensively, so we need to be ready for that.”

Rockford (12-7-1) will host Forest Hills on Friday at 7:00 for the regional championship.

“Forest Hills is a good team too,” said Neumen. “We just have to play well as a team, catch the ball and have good fundamentals.”

The Rams are 1-1 on the season against Forest Hills United.

“We split with them this year,” said Emery. “We won here, and they won at Forest Hills. Historically, they’ve had a hard time winning here, but this is probably the best team they’ve had. It should be a battle.”

Rockford comes up big with 13 scorers in girls lacrosse regional opener win over West Ottawa

Jen Judson | Advance Newspapers, May 24, 2012 9:39 p.m.

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Rockford's Morgan Stage(12) shoots and scores against West Ottawa's goalie, Samm Grubbs (28). - (ADVANCE photo by KAREN WAITE)

ROCKFORD – It was a fun night for the Rockford girls lacrosse team. The Rams stayed home to face West Ottawa in the opening round of the Division 1 regional tournament where they took it to a running clock after a 9-0 lead in the first 12 minutes of play. From there, Rockford went on to take the victory 22-0.

“We played really well as a team tonight,” said Rams senior Kendra Winiki who led the team offensively with five goals. “We have a bright future in this tournament, I believe.”

Rockford got on the scoreboard in the first minute of play on a shot by Carly Dew. Less than a minute later Meghan Datema passed to Winiki who was wide open in front of the net for her first score of the night. Morgan Stage was the next Ram to score, followed by one from Isabell Vickers.

“I think we played well, and it was a real confidence booster for us,” said Rockford junior Erika Neumen who ended the night with four assists, and one goal in the second half. “We all came together to let every single person be part of it. Every girl contributed. I’m excited to keep playing with the girls. We play so well together, so hopefully we can keep clicking.”

On the night a total of 13 Rams found the back of the net. After Winiki’s five, Jessica Byers, Vickers, Dew, Megan Hodgman and Madelyn Ek all put away a couple. Aimee Hite, Datema, Kelli Raymon, Kendal Carr and Kendall Short got one goal a piece.

“This was a good tune-up,” said Rockford coach Mike Emery. “We need to pick up the pace of our game. Kendra Winicki did well tonight, and Erika Neumen played really unselfishly. She had a lot of opportunities to score, but passed the ball off. Meghan Datema was very strong on the draw tonight with five draw controls. Kendall Short had a couple of caused turnovers. That was really the tale of the game.”

In net, senior netminder Jenna Chaffee held the shutout through the first 25 minutes and freshman Katie Elwell brought home the shutout in goal in the second half.

Rockford (11-7-1) faces Lansing Waverly on Wednesday at home.

“We played them early on, the first game of the year,” said the coach. “One of five (state playoff) games is down, and we worry about Wednesday now. We just need to play our game. The real key is our ball control. If we get through Waverly we’ll face Forest Hills next in the regional finals Friday.”

East Grand Rapids girls lacrosse goes perfect through conference season after an 18-5 win over Rockford Thursday

Jen Judson | Advance Newspapers, May 10, 2012 10:26 p.m.

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East Grand Rapids' Lauren Hooker (14) battles with Rockford's Kendal Carr (19). - (ADVANCE photo by KAREN WAITE)

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Rockford's Kendra Winicki (5) looks for a teamate as East Grand Rapids' Jane Goodspeed (15) defends. - (ADVANCE photo by KAREN WAITE)

EAST GRAND RAPIDS – The competition in Tier I girls lacrosse is so fierce that no team has ever been able to go undefeated winning all six games in conference play. That is until this year. No team has been able to get the best of East Grand Rapids (20-0) this season, as the Pioneers ended regular dual play with an 18-5 win over Rockford Thursday night at Memorial Field.

“It was a very nice team effort,” said East Grand Rapids coach Rich Axtel. “The girls really came to play tonight. I was really happy with both sides, our offense and our defense. Our defense only gave up five goals, four goals early and then solidified. We’ve been struggling a little bit on offense lately, so it was really nice to see them get back to scoring the way we can.”

Claire Ludlow started the scoring early for East Grand Rapids putting one away at 24:22, and teammate Lauren Hooker got her first of seven goals less than three minutes later.

“Lauren Hooker and Claire Ludlow have been leading us all season, and they really stepped up today,” said Axtel. “Jane Goodspeed had a really good game tonight, as she often does. She and Emily French were both very solid today, but it really was a strong team effort.”

Rockford pushed forward to tie the game at 2-2 with a goal from Isabelle Vickers and a free position shot and goal by Meghan Datema. The Rams went on to take the lead 3-2 at 15:54 when Erika Neumen bounced one in after an assist from Datema.

“(Rockford) played a good, hard first half,” said Rockford coach Mike Emery. “We just couldn’t hold it. We saw some great individual efforts from a few kids that really stepped up. Kendall Short really played well tonight at both ends of the field. She left it all on the field. Meghan Datema and Erika Neumen always brings it all and Kendal Carr. Those are some kids who really laid it out there.”

East tied the game nearing the 10-minute mark when Liza Elder took a pass from Ludlow and turned it into the 3-3 score. Hooker then put the home team up one, before Rockford’s Carly Dew threw to Kyleigh Egnatuk for the team’s last score of the half.

“Rockford is always a tough opponent,” said Axtel. “They come and play physically, and they’ve had some really close games lately. I was worried that they would be up to the challenge and they certainly were tonight.”

With the two teams tied at 4-4, East Grand Rapids scored nine straight goals between the end of the first and the start of the second half. Ludlow put in three straight and Hooker added two more in the run. Elder had one and Chandler Filion scored the first of her two on the night.

“As a team our defense broke down in the second half, and it got out of hand,” said Emery. “Nobody has beaten them this year, so my hats off to them. They are playing well and have a great group of kids.”

Rockford finally got back into the net when Datema tossed the set-up to Neumen. Finishing off the scoring for East were Hooker’s two goals, Filion’s one and Katherine Golladay’s two.

“One of the amazing things about West Michigan lacrosse is that we have five of the top 11 teams here, and in our conference,” said Axtel. “This conference is absolutely loaded, and it’s really fun to have games like this and you only have to go 20 miles, and you get to play some really good players.”

While East Grand Rapids ends the regular season at 20-0, Rockford is 8-7-1.

East Grand Rapids, Catholic Central and Forest Hills girls lacrosse teams finish unbeaten at tournament

Steve Ungrey | MLive.com, April 28, 2012 8:17 p.m.

Three local programs finished with 3-0 records among the 14 varsity schools present.

"We've had this event for three years now and it's really grown in the last couple years," Rockford girls coach Mike Emery said. "Some of the biggest teams from around Michigan were here this weekend, and I'd say we had close to 500 lacrosse players."

Catholic Central defeated Hartland, Ann Arbor Pioneer and Troy Athens to finish the tournament unbeaten.

East Grand Rapids scored a combined 51 goals in three games in wins over Bloomfield Hills Lahser, Ann Arbor Pioneer and Northville.

Forest Hills topped Northville, Grosse Pointe South and Bloomfield Hills Lahser. Lindsey Jenks and Karlie Cassidy had six goals apiece in the three games.

Terese Jenks added five goals and Ashley Bailey added four goals.

Rockford girls lacrosse tops two teams at tournament

Steve Ungrey | MLive.com, April 21, 2012 7:03 p.m.

With a 16-12 win over Birmingham United and a 15-12 win over Bloomfield Hills Academy of the Sacred Heart, Rockford's girls lacrosse team came away victorious in two Saturday games.

Erika Neumen had eight goals in each game, for 16 goals total, during the two contests.

"We did a great job today," Rockford coach Mike Emery said. "We'd lost earlier in the season to Catholic Central and then we just didn't plain show up in a loss to Forest Hills, so these were two good wins against teams on the east side of the state."

Grand Rapids Christian girls lacrosse falls to No. 2 Rockford, 22-10, Wednesday

Sean Lutz | slutz@mlive.com, April 11, 2012 11:27 p.m.

Helen Young led Grand Rapids Christian (1-1) with four goals and two assists. Phoebe Lambert had two goals and an assist while Allison Greeley also had two assists. Goalkeeper Lauren Boer had nine saves.

Rockford (3-0) is currently No. 2 in this week's Laxpower.com ratings.

Grand Rapids Christian hosts Caledonia Friday.

Rockford girls lacrosse opens season with 20-4 rout of Lansing Waverly Co-op team Monday night

Sean Lutz | slutz@mlive.com, March 26, 2012 9:22 p.m.

Seven different players scored for Rockford, who fell 15-14 to Ann Arbor Pioneer in last year’s Division 1 state semifinal. Erika Neumen scored a game-high five goals and added two assists. Kendra Winicki finished with four goals and two assists while Meghan Datema, Rosie Morrison and Isabelle Vickers all had three goals apiece.

Rockford (1-0) had a 30-6 advantage in shots on goal and led 14-1 at halftime.

Two goalkeepers were used in the win. Jenna Chaffe started the game in net and had a save while Lauren Whitfield played the second half and had one save as well.

“The girls were tired of going against each other in practice and were ready to get out and play tonight.” Rockford coach Mike Emery said. “We really spread the scoring out and had a number of different girls get goals. I think what really helped was that we played very well off the draw. It’s a very nice win to begin the season.”

Rockford is back in action against Williamston-Haslett on Wednesday.