This time around, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls lacrosse team got the ending right – and the reward was a Tuesday-night date in the Carrier Dome with a chance to end a nearly two decade-long wait for a Section III Class A championship.
Having twice lost to defending champion West Genesee in the regular season, the no. 3 seed Northstars turned it around when it mattered most, taking an early lead and then hanging on with poise and calm to knock out the Wildcats 10-8 in Thursday night’s sectional semifinal at Chittenango High School.
Each of the regular-season meetings between C-NS and WG were close, hard-fought affairs. And the Wildcats won both of them by equal 9-5 margins, the latter of them a particularly frustrating result for the Northstars because it led 5-2 late in the first half before getting shut out in the game’s last 29-plus minutes.
Still, those games had proven that, if it could string together a full-game effort, C-NS could prevail – and that’s exactly what happened at Chittenango.
C-NS took a pair of early leads, but they didn’t last long as back-to-back goals by Kyra Bednarski and Nicky Delany erased the Northstars’ 3-1 edge late in the first half.
But the Northstars made its most critical run before halftime, netting three straight goals to seize a 6-3 lead. More importantly, a physical, experienced C-NS defense had figured out how to deal with WG’s deep group of forwards.
Seniors Lexxi Knoblock, Mary Kate Bonnani and Jenna Lippert anchored the back line, which, combined with the 12 saves put up by goalie Lauren Gilbert, made sure that no WG comeback took place. Three different times, the Wildcats pulled within two, and all three times C-NS answered with a goal.
When Lexi Meager converted with 11:11 left to again cut the lead to two, 9-7, C-NS fans got nervous – but the Northstars, regained possession and patiently worked down the clock until scoring with two minutes left. Though Madisyn Kittell offered up a goal with 43 seconds to play, C-NS was able to run out the clock.
All game long, Samantha Tortora did a superb job controlling draws. She also had two goals and one assist as Brenna Duffy and Mallory Eymer also had two-goal outings. Meghan Duffy had three assists to go with her lone goal as Bryar Cummings, Megan Tryniski and Jessica Meneilly also found the net.
With just six teams in the sectional Class A bracket, both West Genesee and top seed CBA had byes straight into the semifinals, while C-NS had to play against no. 6 seed Rome Free Academy in last Tuesday night’s opening round at Bragman Stadium.
That didn’t prove too difficult, with the Northstars pummeling the Black Knights 23-0 in a game that was 12-0 by halftime and kept getting more lopsided despite a running clock throughout the second half.
Jessica Meneilly managed four goals, with Meghan Duffy notching three goals and four assists just after it was announced that she would take part in the Under Armour All-American Game on July 2 at Towson University, near Baltimore.
Isabella Orlando joined Tortora as they both notched three-goal hat tricks. Tryniski had two goals and two assists, while Jessica Foley scored twice. Cummings had a goal and four assists as Julia Alberici and Brenna Duffy both had a goal and two assists. Bonnani got to contribute a goal in her last home game as Eymer and Olivia Africa got goals, too.
Just before C-NS knocked off West Genesee, CBA had to make a second-half comeback to escape an upset bid from no. 4 seed Fayetteville-Manlius and prevail 12-10. Thus, the undefeated, state no. 1-ranked Brothers would await the Northstars in the Dome Tuesday with a sectional title at stake.
