Two years after the Skaneateles girls lacrosse team earned its most recent state championship at the expense of Bronxville, the Broncos got even with the Lakers.
Making an 11-1 run that bridged the first and second half and erased a six-goal deficit, Bronxville defeated Skaneateles 15-11 Friday morning at SUNY-Cortland in the state Class D semifinals, claiming a clash of the state’s top two-ranked sides.
“That was a big disappointment,” said Lakers head coach Bridget Marquardt. ‘”The game plan was working (early), but Bronxville killed us on the draws, and in the second half we just didn’t have possessions.”
Bronxville, players and fans alike, remembered quite well how Kyla Sears’ goal in overtime beat them in the 2017 state final. The Broncos had also lost the 2018 state title game, so it arrived in Cortland hungry to finally win it all.
Yet it was Skaneteles jumping out in front, Riley Brogan assisting on Maggie Newton’s goal and then converting herself to make it 2-0. As that went on, the Lakers made some early stops, including two point-blank saves by Ioanna Christou that fired up the rest of the team.
Newton, Brogan and Grace Dower hit on goals 35 seconds apart to stretch that margin to 5-0 before Bronxville got on the board with Annnek Pulkkinen’s goal at the 8:54 mark of the half.
All through the early stages, the Broncos’ defense found it impossible to contain the trio of Dower, Brogan and Newton, their intricate passes and intertwined skills blending so well.
When Brogan scored her third and fourth goals back-to-back to extend the margin to 8-2, Skaneateles appeared in total control. Yet Bronxville remembered that it held that exact same 8-2 lead in the first half of the 2017 state final, and knew that things could turn around – which they did, this time in the Broncos’ favor.
With Fiona Jones controlling most of the draws against whoever the Lakers put in the circle , the Broncos ran off seven unanswered goals in a span of eight minutes late in the half.
Caroline Ircha’s free-position shot in the final minute briefly put Bronxville in front before Olivia Navaroli scored with 2.2 seconds left, which made it 9-9 at the break.
Still, with all of the momentum, the Broncos scored four times in a span of 1:49 to take the lead for good, with Jones capping off that run after goals by Hanna Bishop, Kiki Tormey and Alex Doukas.
“We were well aware of what they (Bronxville) were going to do,” said Marquardt. “But our team got tight.”
Even when the Broncos got issued three yellow cards, including one to goalie Caitlin Mooney, the Lakers only got one goal, from Brogan, that cut the margin to 13-10, and only converted once more in the remaining 15 minutes.
Brogan finished with five goals and three assists. Dower, Newton and Navaroli were the only other Lakers to score, while the Broncos had seven different goal-scorers, led by Pulkkinen (four goals) and Doukas (three goals).
As Bronxville advanced to face Mattituck-Southold in the state title game (where it lost, 11-7),, Skaneateles completed a 16-5 season, seeing seniors like Navaroli, Olivia Dobrovosky, Jessica Patalino, Hope Allyn and Sarah Bailey depart, but returning everyone else for 2020.
