Manlius — While the Fayetteville-Manlius field hockey program boasts six Section III championships, including two in the last three years, it rarely, if ever, has experienced a game as exciting and thrill-packed as Sunday’s Class A final against Baldwinsville.
Playing on its home turf, the Hornets twice surrendered one-goal leads to the Bees, and were constantly on the brink of defeat in overtime, only to survive those trials and prevail 2-0 in a shoot-out to advance to the state tournament.
Since the game ended 2-2 after regulation and OT, F-M and B’ville share the sectional title, but it’s the Hornets that will play Section II champion Shenendehowa next Sunday at 1 p.m. in the Class A regional final at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium for a berth in the Nov. 14-15 state final four at Maine-Endwell.
For that, F-M can thank a trio of seniors who, under the most immense pressure, performed at their highest level.
One was goalie Caroline Baril, who didn’t allow a goal in four rounds of the shoot-out, The others were Molly Quinlan and Megan Josephson, who authored the decisive goals in the shoot-out, but only after things got harrowing at the end of regulation.
Up 2-1 thanks to Reilly Baker’s first goal of the season on a rebound of Sophie Craig’s shot midway through the second half, the Hornets were closing in on an outright sectional title.
But then B’ville forced a penalty corner and, with 28.9 seconds left, pulled even with Jade Earle’s hard shot from the point, assisted by Amanda Strenk, who had scored early in the half to wipe out F-M’s 1-0 halftime advantage.
Fueled by that goal, B’ville was the aggressor early in the seven-on-seven OT periods, forcing three penalty corners. Each time, the Hornets stopped it, including some key stops by Baril.
When a pair of 10-minute extra frames settled nothing, it was on to the shoot-out, where an offensive player has 10 seconds to run 25 yards to the net and attempt as many shots as possible.
continued — “I was confident in our (one-on-one) play,” said F-M head coach Cynthia Vulcano. “We practice them often. You never know when a game will come down to it.”
To get ready for it, said Baril, “I made a picture of what I want to do. The more you think about it, the more you psych yourself out.”
B’ville went first, with Chloe Lynch. When the whistle blew, Baril charged well out of the crease to meet her, and forced a hurried shot wide. She did so again on Earle’s try a few moments later.
“Caroline was phenomenal,” said Vulcano.
Quinlan was F-M’s second shooter after Christine Carter-Huffman could not convert. In practice, Quinlan had attempted a trick a couple of times, just in case she would need it for the shoot-out.
Now, as Bees goalie Abigail Timmins (who robbed Baker of a possible game-winner with a great save early in the first OT) charged out, Quinlan popped the ball up on her stick and kept it off the ground, balancing it and not letting it touch the turf until just the right moment, when she lifted it over Timmins’ head into the net.
Carrying all the momentum, F-M saw Baril make a third straight stop, this time on Alyssa Bell. Then Josephson, whose penalty stroke gave the Hornets its only goal of the first half, took her turn, not repeating Quinlan’s stick trick, but still sliding it past Timmins.
And when the Bees’ Shylea Dukat was unable to put it past Baril in the fourth round of the shoot-out, F-M had prevailed, and were glad that it wouldn’t have to play Shenendehowa for a week so it could recover from such a tough battle, and then prepare for the challenge ahead.
