What the last three games of the regular season would reveal for the Cazenovia field hockey team was if the hard lessons applied during its most challenging season in 15 years took hold in time for the Section III playoffs.
On a warm Tuesday afternoon at Burton Street, the Lakers hosted Cato-Meridian and, bouncing back from an Oct. 6 defeat to Fayetteville-Manlius, unloaded on the Blue Devils in a 7-0 shutout.
The five goals Cazenovia accumulated in the first half against Cato were the most for the team in any half this season, and two more would follow as Carley Loundsbury proved unstoppable.
All that Loundsbury did was net three goals for a hat trick and add a pair of assists. Katie Ammann had a goal and two assists, with Cavy Monahan getting one goal and one assist. Peyton Basic and Tessa Carroll had the other goals as Elora Wilmot contributed an assist.
Now the question was whether Cazenovia could duplicate at least a portion of that success a day later at Weedsport against a team it lost to in a 1-0 battle back on Sept. 17.
The answer proved quite positive, for this time it was the Lakers getting the best of the Warriors by that same 1-0 margin.
It was Cavy Monahan, taking a pass from Ammann, that netted the go-ahead goal during the first half. From there, it was the Lakers’ defense rising up and stifling Weedsport, holding them to one shot as it took Mariah Quigley’s eight saves to keep the Warriors close.
Cold temperatures arrived late in the week, but the Lakers, who finished second (6-2) to Weedsport (7-1-1) in the Onondaga High School League standings, looked to remain hot in Friday’s regular-season finale against visiting Moravia.
After honoring its seniors, Cazenovia went out and topped Moravia 3-1, with two of the goals coming from Lily Sorbello as Samantha Morgan assisted on one of Sorbello’s tallies and netted the other goal. Ammann and Loundsbury also earned assists.
So with an overall league record of 7-2, Cazenovia finished just behind 7-1-1 Weedsport in the OHSL standings More importantly, the Lakers found itself with the no. 6 seed in the sectional Class C playoffs.
That means Cazenovia to face no. 3 seed Vernon-Verona-Sherrill in Tuesday night’s quarterfinal on the Red Devils’ brand-new Field Turf, with the winner to face Clinton or Sherbrune-Earville in Sunday’s 1 p.m. semifinal at Fayetteville-Manlius.
Camden is the Class C sectional top seed after winning the Class B crown a year ago, switching places with Holland Patent, who knocked off the Lakers in the 2017 sectional semifinals but is now the Class B top seed.
