In order to get through the early rounds of the Section III playoffs, the Cazenovia girls soccer team first had to reinforce its superiority over its Madison County neighbors from Chittenango before trying to get the better of its Laker rivals from Skaneateles.
Warm, windy conditions greeted Cazenovia, the no. 5 seed, as it hosted no. 12 seed Chittenango in last Tuesday night’s opening round at the Sean Googin Sports Complex. And it was all Lakers from the outset as it never let the Bears get into the argument and prevailed by a 5-0 margin.
When they had met Sept. 20 at Chittenango, Cazenovia prevailed 4-1, but here it was more decisive, and it all took place in the first half.
Kirsten Underwood got the Lakers on the board in the first half, assisted by Maddy Gavitt, and Saige Ackermann’s unassisted goal made it 2-0. Then it got away from the Bears as Gavitt assisted again, this time on Megan Henderson’s lone goal of the night.
Ackermann returned to net her 29th goal of the season to make it 4-0 before Brenna Hughes converted. This entire blitz took less than 40 minutes, and rendered the second half anticlimactic as the Lakers could look ahead to the next round.
While the Bears’ season ended with an 8-9 mark, Cazenovia prepared for Friday’s quarterfinal, another tough assignment with an opponent (Skaneateles) it couldn’t beat at home in a 2-1 decision on Sept. 22.
Now the game was at Hyatt Stadium, so with higher stakes, on a hostile field, and amid wet, cold conditions, Cazenovia sought payback, and nearly got it, only to have it drag into overtime where Skaneateles, despite getting far fewer opportunities overall, made the big plays it needed to hand the visiting Lakers a 3-1 defeat.
Cazenovia was still without goalie Hannah Matteson, who was sidelined by a slight concussion. Tessa Hanskneck had replaced Matteson, and had shut out Chittenango (earning five saves), but things got tougher for the defense early in the Skaneateles game when sweeper Morgan Maliga, a stalwart all season, went out with an injury and did not return.
Raenah Campbell’s goal off a corner kick put Skaneateles up 1-0 going into intermission. But Underwood pulled her side back even, 1-1, with a second-half tally that forced a pair of 10-minute periods of mandatory OT.
Tess Peterson scored in the first OT to put Skaneateles in front. Cazenovia tried to answer, but like for most of the game, it just couldn’t convert, having taken 14 shots to the hosts’ five and seeing Grace Kush stop 13 of them.
Maddie Peterson’s goal in the second OT secured for Skaneateles a berth in the sectional semifinals against top seed and state no. 2-ranked Westhill. Meanwhile, Cazenovia saw its season end with an 11-6 record, quite a good mark for a team with just 14 players on the roster and three seniors.
It was a tribute to the work done by first-year coach, Kaleen Sessler, who did a tremendous job while giving birth to a son in mid-season but returning to the squad just a few days later to coach the rest of the season, with help from her assistant coaches, including her father, Pat Kelleher, a 30-year coaching veteran, and Kara Falso, who has spent 14 years in the coaching ranks.
Those seniors included Ackermann, Henderson and defender Carolyn Benn, players that will be difficult to replace in 2017, though having a large group of returning starters that includes Gavitt, Hughes, Matteson, Maliga nd Jamie Joseph will help.
