With only the smallest amount of stress, the Skaneateles girls lacrosse team ran its way back to the Carrier Dome – and to the brink of another Section III Class C championship.
To get to the Dome, Skaneateles first had to traverse past no. 4 seed LaFayette in Friday night’s Class C semifinal game at Liverpool High School Stadium.
And the Lancers made the mistake of scoring the game’s first goal – which Skaneateles answered with its full arsenal of skill, speed and precision, leading to a 19-3 victory.
Rarely has the Lakers trailed in any game this season, although on occasion it did surrender a first goal before the torrent was unleashed.
That’s what happened here as, 39 seconds into the game, LaFayette’s Skye Schumacher flung a shot past Lakers goalie Mallorie Olin. But no alarm was caused by this early deficit. Rather, it only made Skaneateles more potent.
A mere 14 seconds after Schumacher scored, Hannah Powers answered. Then Powers put in a second goal less than a minute later, and by the five-minute mark she had a hat trick, Skaneateles had a 3-1 lead.
It went on from there, in a pattern familiar to anyone who’s watched the Lakers this spring. It would win a draw, attack hard and convert, over and over, and when LaFayette tried to answer, Olin made a series of key stops to keep it from getting too interesting.
By the time the Lancers scored again, it trailed 10-1, and all of it had come in a span of less than 15 minutes. The clock was running for good when Molly Wood converted to make it 13-3 late in the first half, and never stopped the rest of the way.
All told, Powers had four goals and three assists, with Kyla Sears adding four goals and two assists. Seniors Nicole Beatson and Casey VanSlyke each scored three times, with Wood contributing two goals and one assist. Alana Navaroli, Mae McGlynn and Molly Newton earned the other goals as Hannah Logan added an assist.
In Tuesday night’s sectional title game at 6 p.m., Skaneateles faces no. 3 seed South Jefferson, who is in its first-ever final. The Spartans, taking advantage of no. 2 seed Marcellus getting knocked out by General Brown earlier this week, beat those same Lions in a 12-11 thriller in the other semifinal game.
