Though it took four tries, and it took overtime on the fourth attempt, Penn Yan finally conquered Cazenovia and earned a shot at the boys lacrosse state Class C championship.
In Wednesday night’s state semifinal at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, the Lakers rallied from a six-goal deficit and led late in the fourth quarter, but could not hold on and lost, 11-10, when the Mustangs’ Tate Stewart put in the winning goal 2:24 into overtime.
For Cazenovia’s seniors, who had lost state title games each of the last two years, it was a particularly frustrating conclusion, a fact that head coach Jim Longo acknowledged.
“It would have been nice to take the last step, but it wasn’t our day,” said Longo. “Penn Yan played a great game against us.”
Each of the previous three seasons, Cazenovia had survived tough challenges from Penn Yan in this state semifinal round, and it almost did so again.
When Thomas Bragg scored with 7:08 left in the fourth quarter, it capped an 8-1 spurt, and the Lakers led for the first time since the opening minutes of the game.
But with chances to add to that 10-9 lead with two man-up situations, the Lakers could not convert. Penn Yan regained momentum from those defensive stands and, with 2:12 left, Sean Emerson beat Brendon Whalen at the doorstep and it was tied again, 10-10.
Having claimed 12 of 19 faceoffs so far, the Lakers did so again, Cole Willard chasing down the loose ball. With two shots in the last minute of regulation, Willard fired them wide, and Whalen had to make a stop as the clock ran out.
Penn Yan won the overtime face-off and called a time-out. The Lakers’ defense worked for two minutes and stopped the Mustangs, forcing a turnover.
Longo said he did not use his team’s time-out because “we didn’t want their defense to get organized”, but amid the transition, Cazenovia gave the ball back to Penn Yan, who went on a fast break.
A series of passes brought the Mustangs to the right side of the net, where Gerhardt was situated. When Whalen challenged Gerhardt, the Penn Yan forward found a wide-open Stewart at the left post, and Stewart it in the net.
While the Mustangs’ effort was exceptional, Cazenovia’s comeback from an 8-2 first-half deficit was just as special.
Already trailing 3-1, the Lakers saw the Mustangs net three goals in a 57-second span early in the second quarter, two of them by Gerhardt. Even a Cazenovia time-out didn’t change the momentum right away, Austin Fingar scoring on a behind-the-back shot and Conner Fingar converting four minutes later to make it 8-2.
Static throughout the first half, the Lakers’ attack started to move when Thomas Bragg converted right before halftime, a hint at what lay ahead in third quarter.
With Brice Basic grabbing the face-offs, Cazenovia started putting lots of pressure on Penn Yan’s zone defense. Bragg hit on back-to-back goals, and then Willard, kept without a goal to that point, converted twice as part of a 28-second sequence where Jake Lewis got his only goal of the night.
Had officials counted a shot that went past the goal line during that third-quarter flurry, Cazenovia would have tied it long before Willard did so early in the fourth quarter. But while the Lakers regained the lead, it didn’t put things away, opening things up for Penn Yan to stage a rally of its own.
And now a tremendous Cazenovia senior class, including Willard, Lewis, Whalen, Derek White, T.J. Connellan, Adam Race, Jake Shaffner, Jake Stowell and Kevin Frega, departs, so many of them part of the Lakers’ state championship football team in the fall, but not quite getting it on the lacrosse field.
