When Kelly Torrmey and Kristen Taylor were hired to take over the Fayetteville-Manlius girls lacrosse team last summer, the mission was clear – restore the program’s championship glory enjoyed by this sister tandem in their playing days a decade ago.
In just one season, that mission was accomplished.
The Hornets used its overwhelming speed and skill to take over midway through last Tuesday night’s Section III Class B final against Watertown at SUNY-Cortland, and despite two delays and a furious late comeback from the Cyclones, F-M held on a 15-12 victory and its first sectional title since 2006.
While it was true that F-M benefited from getting moved from Class A to B for this season, there was nothing easy about trying to take the sectional title from defending champion Watertown, a potent side led by Jillian Girardi, who entered the final having scored 91 goals, eight of them in a sectional semifinal win over Fulton.
Perhaps a bit nervous at the outset, F-M fell behind, 3-1, in the opening minutes, but got going thanks to Gemma Addonizio, who earned her team’s first two goals. Then it took a 4-3 lead on back-to-back goals from Kaylee Steigerwald and Katie Shanley.
Aided by a Watertown yellow card and a player up, Jane Cote extended the Hornets’ lead to 5-3, only to have the Cyclones put together its own 4-0 run, Girardi connecting on her third and fourth goals during this stretch.
The game turned for good in the waning minutes of the first half. Attacking again, F-M got even at 7-7 with goals from Annie Steigerwald and Amanda Cramer, and that same pair struck again to turn a two-goal deficit into a 9-7 Hornets lead at halftime.
It turned out to be a long halftime, with thunder and lightning stretching it out to 45 minutes instead of the usual 10. But when play resumed, F-M kept adding to its margin, making it 12-8 before more lightning caused another delay less than five minutes into the second half.
A rainbow hung over the field when the game got started a second time, and F-M’s play resembled the beauty in the sky. Thanks to another goal by Annie Steigerwald and back-to-back tallies from Kiera Shanley, the Hornets’ run stretched to 10-1.
Trailing 15-8 with more than 14 minutes to play, Watertown did not give up. Exford hit on consecutive goals, and Girardi, despite drawing as many as three F-M defenders to her, tacked on her sixth and seventh goals that cut the margin to three with 1:33 to play.
But the Cyclones ould get no closer, stopped at key moments by F-M goalie Elizabeth Brady, who made nine saves, including timely stops on free-position shots that may have caused the Hornets more stress down the stretch.
Instead, F-M savored a championship moment – for about 48 hours, the time between this game and the Class B regional playoffs that started Thursday at Chittenango High School against Section IV champion Horseheads.
