Future college hockey player returns, helps Brighton repeat as state girls lacrosse champ

ROCKFORD — Kaia Malachino was worried she might have played her final lacrosse game before the season even began.

Recovering from a hockey injury, there was no guarantee Malachino would be fit to resume playing for Brighton’s lacrosse team this spring.

But now she knows she has played her final lacrosse game — and it couldn’t have ended any better.

Malachino scored the go-ahead goal with 9:14 left in the game and Georgia Gill added an insurance goal with 3:36 left, giving Brighton its second straight state Division 1 championship with an 8-6 victory over Forest Hills Northern-Eastern Saturday at Rockford High School.

Now Malachino can leave the sport on her own terms. Her next stop is Colgate University to play Division I college hockey.

“I had some thoughts of not making it back, but I believed in myself, my coaches believed in me and my family believed in me,” Malachino said. “That’s what gave me the passion and the strength to hold on and to come back.”

Malachino returned to the lineup May 12 against Midland. She played in the final three regular-season games and all five postseason games, scoring 12 goals and adding 10 assists.

“This is a great group of girls who came together and welcomed me so well,” she said. “I’m going on to play (hockey) at Colgate. It’s weird thinking this is my last time hanging up the cleats, but it’s been a great run, especially back-to-back.”

The Bulldogs went through a down season by their standards, playing a tough schedule and taking more lumps than usual. That included an 11-6 loss to Forest Hills Northern-Eastern in the season opener on March 23.

But the team grew from playing difficult competition, even if the record didn’t show it. When Malachino was pronounced fit to play, the Bulldogs added a difference-maker to an already solid squad.

“When I knew we had Kaia back, I knew for sure we are going to win again, because she is such a game-shifting player on her ground balls,” Brighton coach Ashton Peters said. “Those moments when you need something to go differently, Kaia pops out of nowhere and you’re like, ‘Thank you, Kaia! Way to go!’ She’s that kid for us.”

Brighton won last year’s state championship, the second in program history, behind a strong senior class. The Bulldogs repeated by filling every single one of those holes with players who grew tremendously in the last year.

“We definitely had our doubters this season,” said Gill, one of those returning players who took on a larger role. “Everyone thought we were toast, especially losing our talent from last season. We trusted our coaches’ process and trusted each other and we came out on top. It looks like it worked out for us.”

Neither team led by more than one goal until Gill’s insurance goal completed the scoring.

Northern-Eastern took a 6-5 lead with 17:23 remaining on a goal by Mia Dye, but didn’t score again. After the Bulldogs took their two-goal lead, defender Keelin Ehamn had a steal with 2:30 left. Brighton was able to kill the rest of the time.

Now that Brighton has won back-to-back state championships, perhaps it was fitting that the Bulldogs celebrate on the “R” at the center of Rockford’s field. The Bulldogs lost in three consecutive finals to Rockford before breaking through last season with an overtime victory over Northern-Eastern.

“Last year they were saying, ‘You guys have always been the bridesmaid, but never the bride,’ ” Peters said. “I told the girls, ‘You have a gap to close, and it’s a big gap.’ You saw year to year that gap close. They finished it last year and the girls knew the process.

“This year we came into the season with a tough schedule, knowing we are pretty much rebuilding our entire team, because we graduated six starters who were impact players. The girls trusted the process of the hard game we put in front of them.”

Malachino, Gill, Lauren Zaccagni and Ella Toth scored twice for Brighton.

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillKhan.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Brighton repeats as state girls lacrosse champion