In the four days after roaring past South Jefferson to earn the Section III Class D championship, the Sknaeateles girls lacrosse team had to navigate through two regional games in order to make yet another state final four trip a reality, with a lot of things going on in between.
But the Lakers managed it all with style, starting in the state tournament Thursday as it faced Section IV champion Chenango Forks at Liverpool High School Stadium. Thanks to a blazing start, Skaneateles never faced a serious threat from the Blue Devils and went on to a 17-7 victory.
Applying relentless pressure, the Lakers kept it in Forks’ end and built a 6-0 lead before the Blue Devils got on the board, getting goals from five different players as Grace Dower scored twice and Kyla Sears, Olivia Navaroli, Riley Brogan and Maggie Newton joined them.
It got to 10-1 late in the first half before Forks made a brief spurt, only to have Dower and Abbey Logan convert to produce a 12-5 halftime margin. Mae McGlynn then joined the fun early in the second half before Sears and Dower pushed the margin to double digits.
For the night, Sears had four goals and four assists, with Dower contributing four goals and three assists. Brogan and McGlynn gained three-goal hat tricks as Emily Baldwin stopped eight of the 15 shots she faced.
And this led to a busy Saturday for all of the Skaneateles players. It began, for half of them, with SAT’s in the morning, and would conclude that night with the Senior Ball. In between all this, the Lakers would ride more than two hours to Ogdensburg for the Class D regional final against Section X champion Canton.
With every excuse for a poor performance lined up, Skaneateles still dominated from start to finish, handling Canton 19-3 as the margin got to double digits, 12-2, by halftime and the Lakers could afford to rest key players and get the entire roster on the field.
Twelve different players netted at least one goal, with Sears earning three goals and four assists to lead the push. Dower and Brogan both had two goals and two assists as McGlynn, Sophie Kush and Rachel Pinney also scored twice. Grace Kush had three assists as single goals went to Navaroli, Newton, Emma Goodell, Gaby Welch and Olivia Nye.
Now it’s back to SUNY-Cortland and the first-ever state Class D final four. In the semifinals this Friday at 2 p.m., Skaneateles faces Section V champion Palmyra-Macedon, with the winner coming back 24 hours later to play for the championship game against Bronxville (Section I) or Mattituck (Section XI).
