Palisades wins City Section girls’ and boys’ lacrosse titles

Having played a sluggish first half in the semifinals two days earlier, the Palisades girls’ lacrosse squad was determined to get off to a fast start on its own field Wednesday afternoon in the City Section championship game.

Mallie McGowan won the opening draw and sprinted 40 yards untouched to score with only 19 seconds elapsed and the top-seeded Dolphins rode that momentum to a decisive 18-9 victory over their nemesis Birmingham to win their second section crown.

Palisades has played in all nine finals since the City sanctioned lacrosse playoffs in 2014, but its only title came in 2019, also against Birmingham, which won the first five City titles—beating Palisades in the finals every year.

The third-seeded Patriots upset defending champion El Camino Real 9-8 in the semifinals Monday while Palisades took care of No. 4 Hamilton 15-4.

Palisades’ leading scorer Emme Silberberg began the game with 48 goals this season and tallied three straight midway through the first half to give her team an 8-1 lead. She added three in the second half to push her total to six for the game and 54 — a satisfying way to end her high school career.

“We’ve been talking since yesterday about starting the game better, so it was nice to get one right away,” said Silberberg, a senior headed to the University of Wisconsin. “My personal goal was to get 50, so I’m glad that happened. But the team goal all year was to win the championship after getting so close last year. I couldn’t be happier.”

McGowan finished with five goals and Elah Blyumkin added three for Palisades, which was ahead 10-4 at intermission and never let up. Alexa Ruiz and Sherol Ramos led the attack for Birmingham.

In the boys’ final, top-seeded Palisades got four goals apiece from Axel Greve and Trey Tzung and three each from Dominic Zuniga and Dylan Wong to beat El Camino Real 19-2 for its seventh consecutive City crown and eighth overall.

The host Dolphins used a relentless attack to dominate possession time and build a 14-2 bulge by halftime.

Junior goalie Harrison Kerner Wolfowitz, who was convinced by friends to try out for the team before the season and ultimately won the starting job, gave up four goals in two playoff games.

“All respect to ECR — they’ve gotten better since the last time we played them, but we knew this was our game to win,” Zuniga said. “A lot of our seniors last year were offensive guys so it took time for that part of our game to mesh this year but once it did our attack really clicked.”