With two Section III titles in its annals, the East Syracuse Minoa field hockey team will have a chance to add a third this Sunday afternoon when it faces Holland Patent for the Class B championship.
To get to that game, ESM needed a big second half in last Monday’s sectional Class B semifinal at Spartan Stadium to turn back no. 3 seed Cortland 3-1.
This was the rare instance of a team playing an opponent in three straight games. The Spartans had faced the Purple Tigers in its last two-regular-season contests, winning 2-0 in one instance and tying 1-1 in the rematch.
Here, there were two goals on the board before the game was seven minutes old. Off a fast break, Cortland took a 1-0 lead when Lauren Swartz scored off a feed from Meredith Meagley, but three minutes later ESM tied it, Sydney Carnival deflecting in Gillianne McCarthy’s hard shot off a penalty corner.
They stayed 1-1 the rest of the half, but early in the second half the Spartans’ pressure paid off. A slip from a Purple Tigers defender opened up a passing sequence and Grace Stone, taking it from McCarthy, scored to put ESM up 2-1.
Cortland was mostly kept quiet until the latter stages, when it earned a pair of penalty corners that the Spartans ably defended. Then, with 6:05 to play, ESM sealed it when Stone netted her second goal, the assist going to Holly Carr.
This followed the first semifinal, where Holland Patent blasted Whitesboro 7-0, giving the Spartans a good idea of the challenge it faces in the title game.
A day after this, Fayetteville-Manlius had the opportunity to earn a sectional Class A finals berth on its home field – but to do so, the no. 3 seed Hornets had to beat no. 2 seed Baldwinsville in the semifinals at B’ville’s home, Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
It didn’t quite work out, for though the Hornets scored first, it was the Bees prevailing 2-1 in overtime.
In two regular-season meetings, and through 140 minutes of game action, neither F-M nor B’ville was able to earn a goal. And they were scoreless in the first half of this third encounter, too, but that would soon change.
Lucy Fowler’s goal broke the long logjam and put the Hornets in front, 1-0, but the Bees came back, tied it late in regulation, and won it in OT as Kendall Carni and Madison Ascioti got those goals and Emma Brushingham earned an assist.
