Girls lacrosse: Campbell Burns' goal at halftime buzzer sparks Medina rout of Brunswick

BRUNSWICK — The Medina girls lacrosse team took momentum from a last-second goal before halftime and played more inspired in a 19-5 Greater Cleveland Conference win over Brunswick on Tuesday. With the Bees (8-5, 4-0) leading 5-3 in the waning moments of the second quarter, junior Campbell Burns found the net as time expired. "I just kept hearing everybody say, 'Look at the clock,"' Burns said. "And I look up and I think it said two seconds, and I saw the goalie looking other way. So, I just aimed and hoped for the best." The best was yet to come for the Bees, who exploded for 10 goals in the third quarter to put the game into a running clock and out of reach for Brunswick (5-8, 2-2). Burns came out hot in the quarter, scoring 1:24 in and again just 29 seconds later. After a goal by Brunswick's Brooke Gelhar (4 goals), Medina scored the next eight. Julia Kraft had three, Lauryn Krazjal two and Audrey Thompson, Maddie Dawson and Burns one apiece. "Our coach (Colleen Kubasta) said we needed to step up," Kraft said. "We started pushing the fast breaks in third quarter, and shout out to Emma Kohler. She's a freshman and caused three or four turnovers." Burns, Kraft, Krajzel and Dawson each scored four times for the Bees, while Thompson found the net three times. One of the factors in the third quarter was simply the energy put forth by the Bees, who felt like they weren't as into the game in the first half. "Our energy wasn't really there, like the bench wasn't very loud," Krajzel said. "So in the third quarter, we made sure everyone was cheering for everyone." The players on the field could hear their teammates from the bench, and that kept the Bees pushing through. "Everyone was hyping everyone up and then we just got the energy up," Kraft said. "So (the quarter) started off good." It all came back to what was said at the half. "Coach and some of the seniors were talking about the intensity that we had and how it was just extremely low," Burns said. "We just wanted to give as much energy as we could. And as soon as we started talking about the energy we needed to bring, we just started showing it." There was a whole new mindset in the final 24 minutes against the Blue Devils, both physically and mentally. "We pushed all the fast breaks we could, and we made smart decisions with our shots and we just gave all of our effort," Burns said. "Coach said to treat this game like it's a state (tournament) game, like we should every game." Contact Ryan Isley at sports@medina-gazette.com.