Three-peat complete: Bartram Trail tops Plant for third straight girls lacrosse title
The three-peat is official in Bear Country.
Bartram Trail wrote one more chapter in the history books Saturday, holding off a fierce fourth-quarter comeback from formerly-unbeaten Tampa Plant to win a third consecutive championship, 10-8, in the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 2A girls lacrosse final.
Freshman attacker Esa Brenneman sparked the Bears in the early going with three first-quarter goals and finished with a game-high five at Paradise Coast Sports Complex in Naples.
Last year, Bartram Trail (18-5) became Northeast Florida's first team to win two consecutive girls lacrosse state titles. Now, they're the first to capture three in a row.
But the Bears had to survive a late surge with four unanswered fourth-quarter goals from undefeated Plant (23-1), which had never previously qualified for an FHSAA final. The Panthers sliced the Bartram Trail lead to 10-7 with 7:01 remaining, but the Bears successfully drained most of the remaining clock until a turnover at the 1:40 mark.
McKenzey Craig scored her fifth goal for Plant with 1:03 remaining to cut the deficit to two. But Brenneman gathered the loose ball off the draw, and the Bears survived physical pressure over the final moments to seal their triumph under first-year head coach Megan O'Grady.
Senior Ryann Frechette capped her glittering four-time All-American career with three more goals, bringing the Florida signee's career total to 464, and Emily Barnette added two for the Bears. Senior goalie Maddie Stevens recorded five saves in her Bears finale.
Bartram Trail joins Vero Beach as the only teams in Florida history to win more than two consecutive FHSAA girls lacrosse championships. Vero Beach won six in a row from 2010 to 2015 before the Bears ended their run in the 2016 final.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Bartram Trail state champions 2024: Girls lacrosse FHSAA final
