Baltimore Strikes Lacrosse Gold in JCC Maccabi Games

The Baltimore girls lacrosse team that played in last week’s Jewish Community Center Maccabi Games in Philadelphia didn’t have much trouble making its way to the championship round.

That’s when everything changed.

Baltimore, which had several players who live or attend school in Pikesville, rolled to five wins, all by a winning margin of at least four goals. But in the gold-medal game, Baltimore found itself trailing Philadelphia by three goals with just over three minutes left—and two players short due to yellow cards.

But the local girls rallied to force overtime and scored a 17-15 victory and claim the gold medal.

The JCC Maccabi Games are for athletes ages 13-16 and are held in approximately three locations every summer. This year, they took place in Philadelphia, Springfield (MA) and Israel.

Andy Heller, the assistant girls lacrosse coach at Pikesville High School last season, coached the JCC Maccabi team with Robin Cardin-Lowe (The Park School's girls coach) and said he was proud of how his team stayed under control even when short-handed and trailing, 15-12, with just over three minutes left.

“I had the confidence,” Heller said. “We called a time out, and we pulled the girls together and we talked about (what to do).”

Heller’s confidence proved to be well-founded. Baltimore scored twice to cut the lead to one and tied it on a Sara Sefret (Franklin) goal with about 15 seconds left to force overtime. The games were played in the seven-on-seven format with overtime being two three-minute non-sudden death periods. Sudden-death would come after that if the game remained tied.

Toby Dubin (Roland Park) gave Baltimore the lead in the first overtime period, and Ilana Goldberg (McDonogh) scored an insurance goal in the second extra period to complete the wild come-from-behind win.

“We had the momentum,” Heller said. “So we knew we had to score first and then take possession and take care of the ball. Fortunately, we were able to pop two goals in.”

Noa Cardin goes to Beth Tfiloh and said Baltimore was fired up heading into the overtime, and got some extra support from the Baltimore baseball and in-line hockey people who were cheering them on.

“We just wanted to try our hardest,” she said. “I was very nervous, but the cheering from the sideline really helped. It really encouraged us to try harder.”

The gold medal meant even more to the local girls since they suffered a one-goal loss in last year’s championship round when the Games were held in Baltimore.

But this year’s team was shooting for gold right from the start. They crushed Great Britain twice (14-5 and 11-4) and beat Philadelphia/Delaware/South Jersey (16-10) and Philadelphia (16-12) in the first round. After that came a 12-4 victory over Great Britain in the medal round, setting up the finale.

Winning the gold medal was certainly rewarding for the girls and coaches, but there were other memorable moments. Heller and Cardin talked about how friendly the Baltimore and British teams became. That’s one of the best things about the Games, kids can make friends with people from around the country and the world.

“The [best part] was winning the gold medal and meeting people,” Cardin said. “I made a lot of friends that I still talk to.”

The team also included: Alex Green (Hereford), Arielle and Sydney Hamburg (Beth Tfiloh), Baylee Heller (Franklin), Alexa Kushner (Carver), Peri Rutkovitz (Jemicy), Maddie Weinstein (Jemicy) and Sarah Zwilsky (Brunswick, Frederick County).