That the Fayetteville-Manlius girls lacrosse team won its second consecutive Section III Class B championship didn’t surprise anyone – but the way it earned that title sure did.
Pushed to the limit by Auburn in Tuesday night’s Class A title game at SUNY-Cortland, the top-seeded, state no. 3-ranked Hornets needed a second-half comeback and a last-minute goal by Annie Steigerwald to push past the Maroons 13-12.
This was the very same Auburn team F-M had handled by a 15-4 margin at Holland Stadium earlier in the month. But the Maroons were inspired in the rematch and made it stressful from the outset for a Hornets team that had not played a game in two weeks.
Answering Steigerwald’s goal in the opening minute, Auburn took its first lead with back-to-back tallies from Sam Dixon, and forced F-M to use a time-out when it stretched that lead to 4-2.
At least for the rest of the half, the Hornets’ defense proved superb, shutting out the Maroons. Meanwhile, F-M caught up and then had Kiera Shanley score 30.3 seconds before the break to inch in front, 5-4.
Anyone expecting the Hornets to run away, though, underestimated Auburn’s resolve as, throughout the night, Maroons goalie Alexa Driscoll kept making big stops, eventually earning 10 saves.
Inspired by this, Auburn, trailing 6-5, stunned the Hornets with four unanswered goals early in the second half. Dixon, Gabby McGinn, Natalie Calandria-Ryan and Abbey Hai all converted in a stretch of less than three minutes.
Now trailing 9-6, F-M showed its own character, immediately putting together a 5-0 run of its own as Kiera Shanley scored twice, Gemma Addonizio tied it, Katie Shanley put the Hornets in front and Steigerwald’s third goal followed.
Auburn absorbed all this and caught up again as Calandria-Ryan and Marguerite Cuddy converted. And when Amanda Cramer restored the Hornets’ lead, the Maroons got the ball back and, with 1:39 left, Cuddy struck to produce the game’s seventh tie.
Only now did the Hornets assert itself for good, chasing down the draw, seeing Cuddy draw a yellow card and then, with the player advantage, working the ball around until Steigerwald, with 28.6 seconds left, fired it past Driscoll for her fourth goal of the night.
One more turnover forced after the ensuing draw allowed F-M to hold on and celebrate a sectional title, knowing that, on Saturday, it would have to beat Horseheads (Section IV) in the Class B regional final at Corning to earn a return trip to Cortland for next weekend’s state final four.
