University School of Milwaukee (USM) may be the second-best girls lacrosse team in Wisconsin this week, but No. 3 Arrowhead Red is still the reigning back-to-back-to-back state champion with a roster that is 19 seniors strong.
That pedigree and experience showed itself Tuesday night when the Warhawks visited USM’s Liz Krieg Field and walked away with a hard-fought 7-5 victory to remain undefeated in Classic 8 play.
“Tonight, our girls just battled and battled and battled,” Arrowhead Red coach Tom Truttschel said. “In the end, they made some critical plays in the second half to get ahead.”
USM (10-2, 5-2 Classic 8 Conference) took a 3-2 lead into halftime when senior middie Kyle Hession scored her second goal of the game with just 37 seconds left in the half. Junior middie Grace Berrien chipped in the first of her two goals in the first half, as well.
The Warhawks took over in the second half, however. Senior attackers Lexy Chatham and Emily Dvorak each scored two goals in the second half as the Arrowhead defense clamped down on USM, allowing just two goals the rest of the way.
“In the first half, we were a little sloppy with the ball, and that’s not our M.O.,” Truttschel said. “We’re usually much cleaner in transition and we had fundamental errors. We just need to clean up the fundamental side to make it a more comfortable victory.”
Senior goalie Amanda Catalano finished the game with 20 saves, a total that included a furious barrage toward the end of play as the Wildcats urgently tried to send the game into sudden victory.
“They really started ripping them, but my girls rip them on me, so I’m used to it,” Catalano said. “The defense did a phenomenal job today, so shout out to them for crashing in on the ball and communicating.”
Despite the loss, USM coach Samantha Adey is was proud of how her Wildcats competed with one of their biggest conference rivals. The 2-goal margin of victory was a sign that the Wildcats are moving in the right direction as a program.
“Arrowhead has always sort of been the Goliath – they are a gigantic school, and we’re a small school,” Adey said. “They’ve sort of had the upper hand on us for a long time, and I think this was the first time our players got to see they’re a beatable team and they can be that team.”
