Three area girls lacrosse teams made their way into the Section III Class C quarterfinal round, and only two of them were still alive for the semifinals Thursday night at Liverpool High School Stadium, where they will end up battling each other for a berth in Tuesday’s title game at the Carrier Dome.
Marcellus and Westhill both got there as the result of hard-fought quarterfinal wins last Tuesday on their respective home turfs, each of them decided by 11-8 margins – the no. 4 seed Mustangs withstanding a late charge from no. 5 seed Cazenovia, the top-seeded Warriors doing the same against no. 8 seed Homer.
When Marcellus and Cazenovia met in the regular season, on April 21, it wasn’t even close, the Mustangs crushing the Lakers 12-2, and for a long while the playoff rematch followed that exact same course.
Claiming most of the draws, showing patience in its attack and shutting down whatever the Lakers tried to establish, the Mustangs claimed a 4-0 lead before Cazenovia got on the board with Chloe Willard’s goal.
Right away, though, Marcellus answered, and doubled its total in the last seven minutes of the half to make it 8-1, a game that was closer to a running clock than a close battle, though that would soon change.
With a trio of quick goals early in the second half, Cazenovia began to eat into that deficit. The Lakers diversified its attack and made a serious push, and Zoe Shephard’s goalwith 4:49 left cut the margin to three.
But Marcellus won the ensuing draw and then ran out the clock. Grace Coon and Abby Vetsch led a well-balanced Marcellus attack, each of them scoring three times as Maddie Conklin got two goals and two assists, with Colette Rigas adding two goals and one assist. Anna Vetsch had one goal and one assist as Katherine LoCastro added an assist.
Willard, Shephard and Megan Henderson led with two goals apiece, with Sophie Goris getting 10 saves, two more than Mustangs counterpart Sarah Annable.
When Westhill met Homer, a close game was expected since the Warriors barely scraped past the Trojans 7-6 earlier in the month. Here, though, Westhill got to that same total in the first half, and needed to do so in order to take a 7-4 advantage to the break.
That margin got to 8-4, but Homer moved within one, 9-8, with nearly five minutes to play as Olivia Porter, the Trojans’ all-time leading scorer, found the net three times in that run to give her six goals for the game.
It took late goals by Abby Stack and Erin McMullen to regain some control for the Warriors. Still, it didn’t feel safe until goalie Morgan Hayes stopped Gillian McEvoy on a point-blank attempt with a minute left.
McMullen’s late goal was her fifth of the night, while Abby Stack had three assists to go with her pair of tallies. Caroline Miller also scored twice as Shelby Stack got one goal and one assist and Sam VanBuren had the other goals.
Unlike with Westhill and Marcellus, Jordan-Elbridge, the no. 6 seed, had to go on the road for its sectional Class C quarterfinal at no. 3 seed South Jefferson, and found it impossible to keep up with the blistering pace set by the Spartans in a 21-9 defeat.
During a decisive first half, the Eagles had modest production, but that got lost in a flurry of opportunities that South Jefferson turned into goals, the deficit eventually growing to 13-4 before things quieted a bit in the second half, especially after the clock started running.
Miranda Malvaso led J-E with three goals. Marissa Malvaso scored twice, while Antonia Malvaso joined Alexis Braun, Alexis Fietta and Allison Jennings with single goals. Emily Kuehnle added an assist and Anna Bozeat made eight saves as, for the Spartans, Hayley Maguire (five goals), Sidney Hall (four goals) and Quincey Zimmerman (three goals, three assists) led the way.
While South Jefferson advanced to face defending champion Skaneateles in the other sectional Class C semifinal, J-E completed a season where, under first-year head coach Doug Mead, it made quite a turnaround, going 11-7 and even getting into the state rankings.
