The only thing that kept the Fayetteville-Manlius girls lacrosse team from a third state championship in program history was a program who has more of those state titles than anyone else.
To be specific, Long Island powerhouse Garden City had 14 of those titles going into Saturday’s state final against the Hornets at SUNY-Cortland, and would add no. 15 by overcoming an early deficit with a sustained run on both ends of the field and, in the process, handing F-M a 16-8 defeat.
It didn’t help the Hornets that it had to work until the final minutes of the previous day’s state semifinal to beat Canandaigua, while Garden City had roared past Yorktown 19-8. The fact that the Trojans didn’t face as much stress in that game would eventually play a factor when the state title was on the line.
At first, though, the Hornets intended to keep on running. Kiera Shanley’s pair of early goals gave her 10 for the weekend and that, combined with tallies from Gemma Addonizio, Katie Shanley and Kaylee Steigerwald, pushed F-M to a 5-2 lead and forced Garden City to use a time-out.
Whatever was said proved quite effective, especially for Trojans forward Jenn Mejdid, who would take over, much to the Hornets’ regret.
Back-to-back goals from Mejdid cut F-M’s margin to one, and Caitlin Cook tied it, 5-5. Annie Steigerwald converted with 8:34 left in the half, but from there, the Hornets would not find the net again for more than 25 minutes.
Within a 45-second span late in the half, Mejdid, with her fourth and fifth goals, and Sarah Kaval were part of a Garden City spurt of three goals in 45 seconds that broke a 6-6 tie. Then Mejdid returned for a sixth goal with 16 seconds left to push the Trojans’ lead to 10-6 at the break.
Though Mejdid wouldn’t score again, her Garden City teammates made sure F-M did not recover. From Kelly George netting her second and third goals to a defense that punished the Hornets’ front line at every turn and didn’t let them get close-up looks, the Trojans’ full effort wore the challengers down.
Not until Annie Steigerwald scored with 8:22 left did the drought end, but that, along with Katie Shanley’s tally four minutes later, was far from enough, especially when so many shots were scooped up by Garden City goalie Kaitlyn Larsson, who finished with 10 saves.
