An exciting ending, and a win over an elite opponent, gave the Skaneateles girls lacrosse team cause to believe that another championship run was imminent. But a similar ending two days later caused even more frustration.
Thanks to a last-second goal by Lindsay Angelillo, the Lakers beat Fayetteville-Manlius 9-8 last Monday afternoon, its second narrow home win in three days.
Coming off a tough 9-5 win over CBA on May 2, Skaneateles again saw itself fall behind in the first half, but stay within close range as it trailed, 5-4, at the break.
Skaneateles hung close with a three-pronged attack where Angelillo and Katherine Pille each put in three goals and Maddy Morrissey found the net twice. Aly Davis helped them out with three assists as Heather Mullen recorded seven saves.
With the score tied 8-8, and overtime imminent, Angelillo picked up a ground ball, charged down the field — and beat F-M goalie Caroline Trpcevski for the game-winner with just three seconds to play.
Now Skaneateles looks to get payback for an April 7 loss to Cazenovia when it went east on Route 20 and visited the Fenner Street complex on Wednesday afternoon.
For a long while, it looked like Skaneateles would get that revenge, but in an ending as dramatic as the F-M clash, those other Lakers won by that exact same 9-8 margin.
Early on, Skaneateles found itself chasing Cazenovia star Kara Cannizzaro, whose pair of goals broke an early tie and gave her side a 4-2 lead.
For the rest of the half, though, Skaneateles dominated the draws and possessed the ball. With Angelillo and Pille both gaining three-goal hat tricks, Skaneateles went on a 4-0 run and led 6-4 going into the break.
After Cazenovia tied it 6-6, the game evolved into a physical battle where both goalies would stand out. Mullen had 12 saves, while Cazenovia’s Allison Loretz, who only played the second half, frustrated the Skaneateles attackers.
Despite this, Skaneateles, trailing 8-7, tied it on Angelillo’s goal with 3:49 to play, fed by Morrissey. With a minute left, Angelillo had another chance to put her team ahead late, only to have Loretz stop it point-blank.
Cazenovia worked the ball into the Skaneateles end, forcing the visitors to defend Cannizzaro. All that did, though, was leave Julie Gregg open — and taking a pass from Lindsey Nourse, Gregg beat Mullen for the game-winner with 23.2 seconds left.
