All of the bruising defeats it took early this season steeled the Cazenovia girls lacrosse team, and ultimately led to a window of success.
At Cazenovia College’s Christakos Field last Tuesday afternoon, the Lakers, 0-3 entering the contest, earned its first win of the season, defeating the Tully Black Knights 11-8 as Chloe Willard reached a career milestone.
Cazenovia established its margin early, eventually building a 7-4 halftime lead. Then it answered every charge Tully threw at them, and Willard had much to do with it. By scoring five goals, Willard surpassed 200 career points.
Mikaylee Whalen gained a three-goal hat trick in support, while Glenn Hartley, Grace Rajkowski and Laura Connor had one goal apiece and Lauren Burbidge contributed an assist. Brooke Malchak paced Tully with three goals.
Then the Lakers were supposed to face a Marcellus team that had just knocked off Skaneateles, but it got pushed back to Monday, opening space for Cazenovia to take on LaFayette Saturday.
But the Lakers lost, 15-13, to the Lancers, held in check for most of the first half and falling behind 7-3 before breaking out in the second half as neither defense was able to contain the other.
Willard, in particular, was strong, netting seven goals as Hartley got two goals and two assists. Whalen added two goals and one assist, with Rajkowski and Connor earning the other goals.
LaFayette held on, though, because Claire Frier made 13 saves, seven more than Lakers counterpart Laura Lorraine. It also got six goals and two assists from Mya DeJoseph as Charlotte Ryan had four goals and Carha Williams got three goals and four assists.
It took until April 9 for Chittenango to get underway, but the long wait didn’t help the Bears too much as it lost its opener 19-9 to Bishop Ludden/Grimes/Onondaga.
The second half was when things got away as Chittenango saw its 7-4 deficit balloon, despite the fact that Sarah Martin and Taylor Glazier picked up three-goal hat tricks and Julia Pynn earned four assists.
Ally Shoemaker, Alyssa Frantz and Julia Graham also picked up goals, with Graham adding an assist. Allison Kampf and Maddie Flack added assists as Hailee Watt recorded 14 saves. Emma Driscoll led Grimes/Ludden/OCS with six goals and two assists.
A day later, at New Hartford, the Bears again lost, though it was a closer contest. The Spartans prevailed 9-4, outscoring Chittenango 5-2 in the second half to pull away.
Watt did have a tremendous effort, earning 18 saves. Martin, Pynn, Flack and Glazier had one goal apiece, with Shoemaker earning an assist as Jordan Restivo (four goals) and Megan Fiorentino (three goals, one assist) paced New Hartford.
When Chittenango visited Jordan-Elbridge Thursday night, it played a strong second half – but only after falling behind double digits in a 14-8 defeat to the Eagles.
J-E controlled the draws, kept the Bears in a defensive mode and built an 11-0 margin before Chittenango put together three straight goals early in the second half to settle down.
Eventually, Shoemaker scored three times, with Flack, Glazier, Martin, Pynn and Alyssa Frantz all finding the net, too. Watt finished with 10 saves, but 10 different Eagles players scored, with Gabby Gunnip (three goals, one assist) and Alexis Braun (two goals, two assists) leading the way.
Chittenango faced Vernon-Verona-Sherrill on Saturday and broke its skid, handling the Red Devils 13-5 largely on the basis of a big first half where it amassed a 9-2 advantage.
Glazier outscored VVS by herself with a career-best total of six goals. Frantz and Pynn both found the net twice, with Shoemaker getting a goal and two assists. Scofield and Graham had the other goals.
Cazenovia would have a busy week, hosting Marcellus Monday and J-E on Wednesday before facing Ludden/Grimes/OCS on Saturday afternoon. Chittenango had to visit Skaneateles on Tuesday and meets the Syracuse City team on Friday night.
