All season long, the Skaneateles girls lacrosse team had faced obstacles that would crush the hopes of lesser sides.
So a four-goal deficit to Section I champion Bronxville in the second half of Friday’s state Class C semifinal at Tompkins County Community College wasn’t a big deal – and with three different rallies, the Lakers forced it to overtime, where Olivia Navaroli’s goal beat the Broncos 11-10.
Each of the teams arrived at this game with the same hunger to go at least one step further, since Skaneateles and Bronxville both had lost in the state semifinals one year ago.
However, the Broncos had not gone through the continual slate of tough opponents throughout the spring that the Lakers did, something that Skaneateles hoped to use to its advantage.
“We’ve had tough times, but it’s made us stronger,” said head coach Bridget Marquardt.
First, though, it needed the ball, something that didn’t happen much in the early going. Bailey Herr scored on the Lakers’ opening possession, but that came amid a quick Bronxville start where Lilly Grass scored twice in the first five minutes, including one at the 41-second mark.
Not letting up, the Broncos added goals from Allie Berkery and Olivia Jensen, stretching its lead to 4-1, and Skaneateles immediately found itself in a catch-up position.
Even with increased possession time, the Lakers found it difficult to operate against a swarming Bronxville defense that challenged every piece of territory and, when necessary, got big stops from goalie Claire Kraemer.
Still, the Lakers kept pressuring and pulled within one as Molly Newton netted one goal and assisted on the other, by Mae McGlynn. A long defensive stand made sure Skaneateles went to halftime trailing by just one, 4-3.
It took less than two minutes of the second half for the Lakers to pull even, with goalie Emily Baldwin’s long run triggering a fast break where Herr finished it off, assisted by Catie Woodruff.
Twice, Kraemer made point-blank stops to keep Skaneateles from the lead, and Bronxville regained it when Berkery scored twice in a 37-second span, and Grass returned to convert her third goal a minute later.
Those three goals in a span of 1:38 forced the Lakers to use a time-out, but at first it didn’t stop the Broncos, who got the margin to 8-4 on Mason Warble’s goal with 13:42 to play.
To turn it around, said Marquardt, “we had to change our defensive scheme and get the draws.”
That’s exactly what happened. Within a span of three minutes, McGlynn, Navaroli, Abby Kuhns and Hannah Logan all converted. Logan’s goal with 10:56 left tied the game, 8-8, and she scored again to give the Lakers its first lead with 7:09 to play, an advantage that lasted all of 41 seconds before Grass tied it again.
But Baldwin, who named the game’s MVP, twice stopped Warble and the Lakers, with five minutes left, went into a possession game, only to turn it over with 2:30 left, Patiently, the Broncos worked the ball around until Jensen, with 1:19 left, fit a shot just inside the right post.
Berkery cleanly won the ensuing draw from Navaroli, and Bronxville tried to run out the remaining clock, but Skaneateles pressure forced a turnover, leading to a mad dash to the other net. With 14.3 seconds left, Newton got open at the point and, off a feed from Kuhns, went high with her shot and beat Kraemer to send it to overtime.
Amid a scramble for the OT draw, Riley Brogan got it, and immediately the Lakers called time-out to set up a play. Twice, Bronxville made stops, but when Kraemer tried to clear the ball, Navaroli intercepted it and flung the ball into the net 1:37 into the extra period.
With that, Skaneateles earned a spot in Saturday’s state Class C final at 2:30 at SUNY-Cortland against Mount Sinai, who beat Honeoye Falls-Lima 10-3 in the other semifinal.
Twice in the last three years, the Mustangs dashed the Lakers’ state title dreams – in the 2013 finals and 2015 semifinals. Now, they would play again with the top prize at stake.
