Everywhere the Cazenovia field hockey team looked during state Class C final four weekend at Maine-Endwell High School, reminders of frustrations of the recent past were right in front of them.

So it only figured that, to grab the third state title in program history, the Lakers would, on Sunday morning, have to get past Section IV champion Whitney Point, the very same side that won it a year ago – and knocked off Cazenovia 2-0 in the regional round on the way to the top.

Here, the stakes were higher, but the result was the same as the Eagles parlayed a quick start into a 3-1 conquest of Cazenovia that gave Whitney Point back-to-back state titles.

In reality, the first 11 minutes decided the game. That was more than enough time for Whitney Point, who routed East Rochester 4-0 in its state semifinal the day before, to launch an all-out attack and overwhelm the Lakers’ normally stout defense.

Just 6:33 into the game, Leanne Bough scored off Sierra Hand’s feed to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. This was part of a deluge of penalty corners that Whitney Point forced, and on the sixth try at the 10:44 mark, Hand slipped home the rebound of Hannah Burchell’s shot that Maria Groetz could not kick away, making it 2-0 and forcing the Lakers to use a time-out.

For a brief time, Cazenovia did settle down, but with 9:56 left in the first half, that deficit grew to 3-0 when the Eagles’ Elaina Burchell scored on a 40-yard run where she got around a Lakers defender, curled toward the net and then beat Groetz.

All told, Whitney Point attempted 14 penalty corners in that first half to Cazenovia’s one, and had 12 shots. Yet it looked like the Lakers were going to climb back in it when Morgan Giordano scored seven seconds before halftime, capping off a run that Janie Kempf started before passing it to Bella Wheeler, who found Giordano at the doorstep.

The defense would blank Whitney Point throughout the 30 minutes of the second half, holding them to just three shots. But every time Cazenovia attempted to inch closer, the Eagles resisted, including several chances by Zoe Shephard that didn’t find the net.

Whitney Point completed a state tournament run where it outscored its foes a combined 19-1, something even the Lakers couldn’t contain.

Before that, in Saturday’s state semifinal, Cazenovia met up with Pierson/Bridghampton, whom it lost to in the 2013 state title game at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, and in one of its closest battles of the season, the Lakers did pull it off, defeating the Whalers 2-1.

Showing no signs of nerves, Cazenovia attacked from the outset, and grabbed a 1-0 lead just 6:13 into the game as Mikaylee Whalen slammed home the goal. As it had done so many other times this fall, the Lakers kept pushing, putting P/B on its heels for much of the first half.

Not once did the Whalers get a shot or a penalty corner in those first 30 minutes, but Cazenovia had eight shots, generated from six penalty corners. Still, it couldn’t add to that 1-0 margin as the teams went to the break.

Knowing that it had to change the flow of play, P/B did just that early in the second half, making the Lakers’ defense work. And it paid off for the Whalers when Claudia Patterson, taking one of her team’s first shots of the day, converted and tied the game, 1-1.

Not since September had anyone kept Cazenovia this close this late into a game, but it didn’t faze the Lakers. It simply resumed the attack, and didn’t get discouraged when P/B’s Kerrie Villa made a tremendous stop to keep the game tied.

With just seven minutes left, Cazenovia earned another penalty corner. The ball made its way to Shephard, and the talented sophomore drilled a shot into the net, restoring her team’s earlier margin. From there, the Lakers held on, and earned another shot at the prize it wanted most – a prize that, again, proved elusive.