If ever a week’s break in between games was welcome, this one for the Cazenovia field hockey team fit that profile.
Over a course of two weeks, the Lakers had played seven games, six of them on the road, facing all kinds of quality opposition inside and outside the Section III ranks.
And it held up, for the most part, but by the final minutes of the final game of this gauntlet, the wear may have started to show, for Liverpool used two late goals to stun Cazenovia 3-2 in last Monday night’s non-league game at LHS Stadium.
It didn’t help Cazenovia that, on this particular night, star senior forward Sarah Willard was absent due to illness. Still, for much of the game, it looked like the Lakers would pull it out.
Cazenovia was jolted to life when Liverpool’s Gabriella Pascarella scored just 2:05 into the game. That only made the Lakers pick up its own attack more, and 10 minutes later, Rachel McLaughlin put in the tying goal.
For the second time in as many weeks, Cazenovia had to try and stop a hot goalie. Just like Weedsport’s Abby Marsden (16 saves in a 1-1 tie on Sept. 23) had done), Liverpool goalie Megan Evangelista constantly stopped the Lakers on its multiple penalty corners, ending up with 12 saves.
Thus, the Warriors were still in the conversation even though Sarah Liddell netted the go-ahead goal with 19:40 to play in the second half, off a right cross from Zoe Shephard set up by a gorgeous between-the-legs pass from McLaughlin.
Liverpool waited for a counter-attack – and got it when sophomore Brianna Socker tore down the field with regulation time starting to wind down. At just the right moment, Socker passed to the middle, where Tucker timed her shot right and flung it past Cazenovia goalie Kimber Nourse with 2:34 to play in regulation, forging a 2-2 tie.
Energized by the goal and by the home fans, the Warriors withstood a Laker charge and then, in the final seconds, forced the Lakers to concede a penalty corner, which had to be played out, even though the LHS Stadium clock had expired.
Staying focused, the Warriors used a pair of passes to give it to Socker, and she passed it to Pascarella, whose low, hard shot crashed into the net and gave the Warriors an unlikely win.
The week of rest that follows will give all of the Lakers a chance to regroup – and in Willard’s case, feel better so she could return to action next Monday when the Lakers visit Cortland.
