True, it was Senior Night for the Skaneateles girls lacrosse team, and it was quite a talented and accomplished senior class that would get a happy send-off during Wednesday’s 17-7 victory over Marcellus in a clash of two rivals ranked in the state Class C top five.
But it was two girls not in that senior class that helped put the Lakers put away the Mustangs by a margin identical to the 18-8 victory Skaneateles attained at Marcellus on April 2.
Freshman Kyla Sears, who had just received one of the highest honors of her burgeoning career, scored five times and added five assists, while junior Hannah Powers set a career mark with six goals.
If Skaneateles (13-1) needed any more motivation for the latest meeting with Marcellus, it arrived with the new state Class C rankings that showed the Lakers, once in the top spot, unseated by Mount Sinai and now at no. 2.
At the same time, though, Sears, who had 12 goals and seven assists in three Skaneateles wins the week before against LaFayette, Onondaga and Westhill, was named as the Northeast Regional Player of the Week by Nike/U.S. Lacrosse, a rare honor for any ninth-grader.
This led to Senior Night, as captains Molly Wood, Alana Navaroli and Casey VanSlyke were honored along with Mallorie Olin, Nicole Beatson, Natalie Roche, Kristen Pille, Jessica Pileski and Molly Newton for all they had done for the Skaneateles program.
And just like in the Westhill game, the Lakers surrendered the first goal, as Marcellus won the opening draw, worked the ball around and saw Ally Burrows take a feed from Grace Hunt and beat Olin for the goal, her 100th career point.
Less than a minute later, the Lakers were in front 2-1 as Powers had scored twice to begin her big night. With Navaroli dominating in the draw circle, Skaneateles kept getting possessions and kept converting them against an overmatched Mustangs defense.
Sears hit her first two goals to make it 4-1, with Beatson also finding the net before Powers hit on two goals 18 seconds apart to give her four for the half and the Lakers a 7-1 edge.
Not until it was 8-1, with those eight goals coming in a span of less than eight minutes, did the Mustangs finally get back on the board with Abby Vetsch’s goal. But that was followed by Skaneateles netting three goals in a 31-second span, with Sears, VanSlyke and Navaroli taking turns in that spurt.
Once Sears scored for the fourth time at the 17:06 mark, the game had a running clock, which was kept until the midway point of the second half, when Marcellus briefly closed the gap to 15-6 before the Lakers shut them out the rest of the way.
Powers tacked on her fifth and sixth goals during the second half, with Sears, who seemed to everything on this night (she even sang the national anthem before the game), getting her point total to double digits. For the season, she now has 48 goals and 25 assists.
Beatson finished with a three-goal hat trick, with Makena Gorman also finding the net. Marcellus freshman Maddie Conklin scored four of her team’s six goals, but Hunt and Grace Nolan were both held without a goal as defenders like Pille, Tate Green and Elizabeth Lane followed them all night.
Two nights later, Skaneateles made the long drive down Route 20 and faced Cazenovia, a team it beat 20-6 earlier this season. Here, the defense was far more effective, limiting those other Lakers to one goal in each half amid another flurry of goals in an 18-2 romp.
After Audrey Burbidge’s goal pushed Cazenovia within one, 2-1, early in the first half, Skaneateles responded with 10 unanswered goals that covered the rest of the first-half clock.
With defenders all over her, Sears still managed a goal and four assists, gladly letting others take the reins of the attack, including Beatson, who scored four times.
Navaroli and Hannah Logan each notched three goal hat tricks, while Powers had two goals and two assists. Wood had two goals and one assist as Gorman, Natalie Roche and Mae McGlynn also earned goals. Molly Newton joined McGlynn in the assist column.
Skaneateles only had to worry about one more regular-season game, visiting Jordan-Elbridge on Wednesday as the Section III Class C playoffs begin a few days later.
