Just maybe, against the odds of sustained success and in defiance of cold, hard numbers, the Cazenovia field hockey team will turn out just fine.
That was the message the Lakers sent during the season-opening Fayetteville-Manlius Tournament, culminating in Saturday’s final, where a late scoring surge produced a 3-1 victory over the F-M Hornets.
What the Lakers have achieved – nine consecutive Section III titles, with a pair of state championships in 2010 and 2011 thrown in there – is remarkable enough, but maintaining that dynasty gets more difficult with each passing year.
And the challenge in 2015 is even greater. Eight seniors, including stars like Rachel McLaughlin, Sarah Willard, Ashley Kent, Meredith Shephard, Josie Chiarello and Kimber Nourse, graduated from last year’s team that fell in the Class C regional final to eventual state champion Whitney Point.
The fact that Cazenovia has just 15 on its varsity roster is not too surprising. Head coach Lorraine Scheftic said the cumulative effect of lower enrollment in the district and four other girls fall sports (soccer, cross country, volleyball and tennis) makes it more difficult to maintain numbers.
While that is true, the Lakers still have plenty of talent on hand, from veterans like Maria Stalder, Bella Wheeler and Maddie Langey to a potential superstar in sophomore Zoe Shephard, whose summer included a gold medal earned at the AAU Junior Olympics in Virginia.
Together, the Lakers made the short trip to F-M and roared through Friday’s opening round game against New Hartford, shutting out the Spartans 8-0.
With a depleted roster, New Hartford found itself overwhelmed in a hurry. Stalder scored less than five minutes into the first half, and Jamie Kempf converted five minutes later. Kempf converted again to make it 3-0, and Wheeler earned assists on all three of those scoring plays.
Zoe Shephard and Mikaylee Whalen added goals by the 18-minute mark, and it stayed 5-0 until halftime. Shephard converted again early in the second half, with newcomer Morgan Giordano hitting on back-to-back goals to extend the margin to eight.
Everyone on the Lakers knew that the final against F-M would provide a bigger challenge. The Hornets lost just four seniors from its 2014 roster, and had beaten Little Falls 3-1 in its opening-round game.
Defenses on both sides ruled in the first half, with neither team able to earn a penalty corner until the midway point. Then, when the chances arose, the shots either went wide or the goalies – Caroline Baril for F-M, Maria Groetz for Cazenovia – kicked them away.
The second half initially mirrored the first, with even play and few real chances as Lizzy Shephard took her turn in goal for the Lakers – at least until Zoe Shephard asserted herself.
With 17:24 left, Shephard wove through F-M’s defenders and took a hard shot that Baril could not quite kick away, allowing defender Allie Karmis to poke the rebound home for the game’s first goal. Less than five minutes later, Shephard took Mikaylee Whalen’s pass on a penalty corner and ripped it home.
Trailing 2-0, F-M didn’t go away, cutting the margin to one on Reilly Baker’s rebound goal with 8:43 to play. But it took less than three minutes for Cazenovia to answer, forcing a penalty corner and seeing Shephard’s hard shot deflected into the net by Stalder.
With the tournament trophy in hand, Cazenovia could turn its attention to Onondaga High School League play, where the Lakers visit East Syracuse Minoa on Tuesday and host Cazenovia on Thursday afternoon.
