'Best way to go out': Seniors Montague, Harris lift Essex girls lacrosse to historic title
The Essex Hornets wrote a set of goals on the whiteboard that they have been checking off during the best season in team history.
There was just one left heading into Sunday's Division I high school girls lacrosse state title game: Raise the championship trophy.
“We went through our goals today and it was like, check, check and the last goal was ‘chizzy,’” Essex coach Skip Harris said. “We were like, let’s check that box too.”
Check.
Top-seeded Essex beat No. 2 Champlain Valley 12-3 at the University of Vermont’s Virtue Field to capture its first D-I title.
“First time in history, we have been working at it all year,” said Essex goalie Sierra Harris. “It feels amazing.”
Senior captains Breya Montague and Harris led the way for the Hornets (17-1), with Montague scoring six goals to pace the offense and Harris making 13 saves to backstop the defense.
“For all of our hard work to pay off, it’s really rewarding,” Montague said. “It was amazing, I graduated yesterday and then winning this today — it’s just the best way to go out.”
Two of the team’s five seniors, Montague and Harris helped the program build from a 1-14-1 squad in 2022 to the D-I state champs this season.
“When go into the Essex High School, banners and banners and banners,” Skip Harris said. “At the beginning of the season, I said there is not a lacrosse banner up there. We’ve gotta get one up there and that has been the goal since day one.”
Montague’s dominance at the draw was also key for the Hornets, who were able to control possession of the ball and slow the potent Champlain Valley transition game.
“We really wanted to shut down their transition, that was the primary goal,” Skip Harris said. “When we played them earlier, they were just running down on us. We just made a commitment to stopping their fast break and controlling the ball.”
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The strategy worked, as the constant possession wore down the CVU defense and kept the Redhawks offense off the board in the second half.
“We were not playing our game, we were out of rhythm, the fundamentals were not going well for us,” said CVU coach Tucker Pierson.
Things did not start off that way in the first half, as CVU and Essex traded early goals. After Montague gave the Hornets a 1-0 lead, CVU’s Carly Strobeck responded to tie the game. Freshman Elizah Martin then gave Essex a 2-1 edge toward the end of the first quarter.
Two quick goals for the Hornets in the second frame — both coming from Montague — helped the top seed slightly pull ahead. CVU sandwiched two goals from Emerson Rice around an Essex score from Martin and the Hornets held a 5-3 advantage heading into halftime.
“After the first half, we had a lot of unnecessary turnovers so we talked about calming ourselves and keeping the ball,” Montague said. “When they don’t have it, they can’t score.”
CVU made a big push at the start of the third quarter, looking to close the two-goal gap but a couple of big saves from Harris in goal kept Essex in front.
“She had a heck of a game,” the Essex coach said his goaltender. “She usually steps up in big games. We have really been working with her on some new stuff this week and she did a wonderful job.”
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The Hornets then turned on the offense late in the third, with Emily Stempek scoring two goals in less than a minute and Montague adding another to extend the lead to 8-3.
Addison Stratton added two more goals in the fourth quarter for Essex and Montague tallied twice to wrap up the scoring and the title.
“The girls just did an amazing job today,” Skip Harris said. “From defensive zone to transition down to the attack, it was a great team win.”
Clare Stackpole-McGrath finished with 10 saves in goal for Champlain Valley (15-3).
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