STATE TITLE BOUND: Fairmont Senior girls lax beats Buckhannon-Upshur 8-3 in semifinal

May 9—FAIRMONT — A shot at the state title on the line, No. 2 Fairmont Senior girls lacrosse hosted No. 3 Buckhannon-Upshur for a West Virginia Scholastic Lacrosse Association semifinal at East-West Stadium Wednesday night.

In a defensive fight, Fairmont Senior came out on top and beat Buckhannon-Upshur 8-3. Fairmont Senior advances to its fourth straight state championship game and fifth in six years.

"This is a team that's battled all year," Fairmont Senior Head Coach Jon Cain said. "Our leading scorer is out tonight, Emily Decker, and you see what they did. Decker went down 30 minutes in our last practice, so we had to make some quick adjustments and told the girls 'Listen, we can do this, we just have to rally around and do this for Emily, and let's take that as motivation to play harder.' And that's what they did tonight. I was very proud of them."

In Decker's absence, fellow senior Ainsley Lilly stepped up and scored four goals for the Polar Bears. Just as Cain told her, Lilly took Decker's absence as fuel to the offensive fire.

"Emily is obviously a key player and one of my best friends," Lilly said. "I just felt it was my duty as a teammate to step up and fill her position."

The other four Fairmont Senior goals came from Lilly's freshman sister, Ayla Lilly, and senior Mackenzie Balzer. Ayla Lilly and Balzer had two each.

Defensively, Fairmont Senior held Buckhannon-Upshur to under the average goals allowed by the Polar Bears this season. Senior goalkeeper and Youngstown State commit Liz Amos helped in a big way with 14 saves.

Cain said Amos is a big reason why Fairmont Senior is in so many games this season. Amos credited her ability to have confidence in herself, the coaches she's played for in her lacrosse career, and the defense in front of her.

"I just trust myself, and I believe in all the hard work that I put in the offseason," Amos said. "I've had some great coaches coming from Mountain State. David Pomeroy out of Davis & Elkins, he's worked for me a whole bunch. And I just trust my defense. I know if I don't get a ball, I know my girls are gonna get it later."

The first half proved to be a defensive effort. Ainsley Lilly scored the first goal over halfway through the firs quarter to give Fairmont Senior the lead. Mackenzie Balzer scored just under two minutes later to make it 2-0 for the Polar Bears, the score after one quarter.

Fairmont Senior held Buckhannon-Upshur scoreless for the 23 minutes of play until Kendall Defibaugh scored on a penalty shot with 46.4 seconds before halftime, cutting the lead in half 2-1. Ainsley Lilly got the goal back for Fairmont Senior, however, with a penalty shot 11.8 seconds left in the half. The Polar Bears took the 3-1 lead into the break.

It took less time for Fairmont Senior to score in the second half than it did in the first. Ainsley Lilly got a hat trick with a wrap around goal three and a half minutes into the third quarter to give the Polar Bears a 4-1 lead. Under a minute later, younger sister Ayla Lilly scored to make it 5-1 for Fairmont Senior.

Buckhannon-Upshur halted the scoring streak of Fairmont Senior with a goal from Kaylee Black forty seconds later. With 3:21 to go in the quarter, Defibaugh scored to make it a two-goal game 5-3.

Ayla Lilly made it a three-goal game again for Fairmont Senior with 2:35 remaining in the third quarter. Her goal gave Fairmont Senior a 6-3 lead, and the Polar Bears took the lead into the fourth and final quarter.

Balzer got the first goal of the fourth quarter a minute and a half into it. She put Fairmont Senior up 7-3, and then Ainsley Lilly put the ball in the back of the net a fourth time to give Fairmont Senior a five-goal lead 8-3 with 8:39 to go in the game.

Despite how much time was left, Fairmont Senior held on and didn't allow any more goals to punch its ticket to the state championship game for the fourth year in a row. Technically it's the fifth straight title game appearance. There was none in 2020 because of the pandemic, and Fairmont Senior has won every year since 2019.

"It's meant everything to me," Amos said. "Since middle school, I've been working my butt off to just keep on living this dynasty. We always say we reload, we don't reuse. We just keep on going, and we just reload every year."

According to Ainsley Lilly, making it back to the title game makes the season as a whole all that more special because the Polar Bears will have no one to blame but themselves if they don't win.

"We have built up so much," Ainsley Lilly said. "We have this huge target on our back, as Jon [Cain] and Jerry [Gardner] tell us every year, and it's just up to us to finish it."

The opponent is to be determined by Friday's game between University and George Washington. The championship game will be at University High on May 18.

Reach Colin C. Rhodes at 304-367-2548