A wild, uneven season for the Cazenovia girls lacrosse team would, at least, lead to an appearance in the Section III Class D playoffs, but it proved a brief one.
Saturday’s opening-round game against Clinton mirrored the season, to some degree, with the no. 8 seed Lakers fighting hard to make up ground, but unable to overcome a brutal start in an 11-9 defeat to the no. 9 seed Warriors.
Clinton arrived at the game 12-4 and co-champions of the Tri-Valley League with Whitesboro, even if it had not faced the same kind of opponents Cazenovia had during its 7-9 regular season.
That hardly mattered, though, at the outset. Led by Sarah Owens and Elyse Jackson, the Warriors bolted out to a 6-0 first-half lead before the Lakers could get on the board.
For the rest of the game, Cazenovia gave chase, especially in the second half, when it outscored Clinton 7-4. Chloe Willard had four goals and Glenn Hartley three goals as Zoe Shephard and Emmie Dolbear had one goal apiece.
But Mikaylee Whalen, a potent force most of the season, got held to one assist, as did Grace Rajkowski. Owens had five goals and Jackson four goals, each of them doing enough to help Clinton hang on and advance to face top seed South Jefferson in the sectional quarterfinals.
Before this, in last Monday’s game against defending Section III Class A champion Christian Brothers Academy, the Lakers were overwhelmed by the Brothers’ depth and skill, falling by a score of 17-6.
Cazenovia did play CBA on relatively even terms in the second half, but only after it fell behind 12-2 in the first 25 minutes, unable to contain the likes of Grace Hulslander, who poured in six goals as Anna Ziemba and Olivia Penoyer each scored three times.
Of the Lakers’ six goals, three came from Whalen as Willard got one goal and one assist. Single tallies also went to Rajkowski and Laura Connor.
Another tough test came at Westhill last Wednesday night, but the Lakers put up quite an effort, never letting things get out of hand, even though it lost 12-9 to the state no. 4-ranked Warriors.
This game reflected many for Cazenovia this season in that Willard was tough to contain, finishing with five goals and one assist, while Rajkowski had two goals. Whalen and Charley Harris also found the net.
Laura Lorraine also had a superb outing, recording 12 saves, but Westhill still solved her enough as Katelyn Karleski led with four goals and Reilly Geer added three goals.
Chittenango, who would miss out on the post-season, had to face Tully last Monday night and got overwhelmed by the Black Knights in an 18-3 defeat.
What made it so frustrating was that, thanks to two goals by Julia Pynn and a goal by Taylor Glazier, the Bears were within range at halftime, only trailing 6-3.
Tully got away, though, with 12 unanswered goals in the second half to overcome Hailee Watt’s 10 saves. Gemma Guy paced the Black Knights with five goals and five assists as Allison Carr added four goals.
At least the season ended well for the Bears as it beat Mexico 5-3 on Wednesday night for its second win of the season, doing so with a second-half comeback after it trailed 2-1 at the break.
Kaiden Williams earned a three-goal hat trick as single goals went to Alyssa Frantz and Maddie Flack. Frantz also had an assist as Watt made five saves. The Bears’ season concluded at 2-13.
