According to the plan, the Cazenovia girls soccer team would step up, reach its first Section III Class B final since 2007 and then, with the most at stake, end a quarter-century of waiting for a championship banner.
Those plans fell two wins short of fulfillment, though.
Going up against top seed Lowville in last Tuesday night’s Class B semifinal at Camden High School, the Lakers had all kinds of chances, but never could get on the board as the Red Raiders, with one successful finish, managed to prevail 1-0.
Even though Lowville carried the top seed and a 16-0-1 record into the game, and had shared the sectional Class B title with Marcellus in 2011, it still carried the burden of an underdog, having not faced consistent Class B opposition in the Frontier League the way that Cazenovia did.
Despite that, and despite a young roster (just three seniors), the Red Raiders never let the Lakers’ vast skills intimidate them and from the outset the game was a tight, tense affair.
Lowville’s intentions were signaled nine minutes into the game, when eighth-grader Caroline St. Croix made it around a defender and broke to the net, only to have Lakers goalie Maggie Johnson stop her.
Another young Red Raider, goalie Alexis Bach, made a big stop midway through the half on Casey Crawford’s high shot, deflecting it just over the net.
So it was still 0-0 when, in the 29th minute, Lowville’s Kelsey Sammon, working from the side, offered a pass to the middle. Johnson and Sammon’s teammate, Isabelle Hanno, arrived to the ball at the same time, but Hannon got a small piece of it first, allowing the ball to trickle past Johnson into the net.
Trailing by one, the Lakers went all-out late in the half. Twice, Audrey Burbidge was fouled near the 18-yard box, and Crawford’s free kick from one of them was swatted away, as was a shot from Jaime Joseph, which maintained the Red Raiders’ slim margin at the break.
As the second half started, Cazenovia’s push for the tying goal resumed, with Crawford and Clare Costello both getting close-up looks that Bach turned away.
Later in the half, as defenders like Sam Gates and Grace Milmoe made sure the game stayed close, Costello and Saige Ackerman both had big chances, but could not convert them, either.
The clock ran out, and with it the Lakers’ 14-4 season, which included a rise to no. 2 in the state rankings at one point late in September, came to an end.
A strong senior class that includes Burbidge, Johnson, Costello, Gates, Milmoe, Kelsi Frederickis, Lizzy Bigsby and Megan Romagnoli will be difficult to replace, but Crawford, Joseph, Saige Ackermann and Olivia McEntee can serve as anchors for Cazenovia in 2015.
