Canastota’s field hockey team will get a shot at unbeaten top seed Cazenovia in Saturday’s Section III Class C semifinals at Rome Free Academy Stadium at 11 a.m.
To get that shot at Cazenovia, the Raiders needed patience and persistence in Tuesday’s opening-round game against Sauquoit Valley, but it led to a 2-0 victory over the Indians.
Having beaten Sauquoit twice in the regular season, the Raiders expected the same kind of success in the third and most important meeting — especially since the Indians did not have leading scorer Michaela Clark and top midfielder Katie Kenny in the lineup.
Indeed, the Raiders controlled the game’s tempo, constantly feeding the ball into the Indians’ end and forcing set plays. Even with a series of penalty corners, though, Canastota was unable to get on the board.
All that changed with 1:43 left in the half. Shea Foster sent a long pass to the middle, where Sam Haumann got it and found Andrea Underwood, whose shot eluded Sauquoit goalie Jessica Jecko and found the net.
Sauquoit didn’t get a shot until the second half and went 40 minutes before its first penalty corner. Still, it remained 1-0 for a while, as 12 different penalty-corner attempts by the Raiders went astray.
With 9:22 left, Canastota got a 13th penalty corner. A scramble ensued at the net and Jessica Patterelli, putting a perfect cap on her 17th birthday, fired a shot past Jecko to ice the victory.
