A year’s worth of work for the Jamesville-DeWitt girls lacrosse team had boiled down to the two minutes remaining in Friday’s state Class C semifinal at SUNY-Cortland against John Jay-Cross River.
Hang on to the lead it had earned with a five-goal run after trailing the entire afternoon, and the Red Rams would earn a chance to dethrone Cold Spring Harbor a day later and earn the program’s first-ever state championship.
Yet it didn’t work out that way as the Section I champion Indians tied the game and then won it, 13-12, on Charlotte Wilmoth’s goal with 14.9 seconds left.
Back in 2018, when J-D made its first state semifinal appearance, Cold Spring Harbor took them out 16-8. Ever since, the Rams had put all of its efforts to getting back to Cortland and, at the very least, going one step further.
Throughout the first half, though, J-D had difficulty both in gaining draws and then, when it had the ball, frequently gave it away to John Jay, who was also attempting to make the state finals for the first time.
“Turnovers hurt us a lot,” said J-D head coach Stephanie Rice.
Forced into playing extra defense, the Rams were spared from real trouble by some point-blank stops from sophomore goalie Skyler Constantino.
“She (Skyler) made some amazing saves and really stepped up,” said Rice.
Trailing 3-1, the Rams tied it on back-to-back goals from Ana Dieroff and Lindsay MacLachlan, only to have the Indians go on a 5-1 run late in the half, those five goals coming from five different players.
Though Chloe Loewenguth scored 1.5 seconds before intermission, it didn’t switch the momentum as JJ-CR built up a 10-5 margin early in the second half.
Still behind 11-7 midway through the half, the Rams began to show the form that got them to Cortland, hanging on to the ball and converting on the possessions it squandered earlier in the game.
Riley LaTray began the comeback and then, in a span of less than two minutes, J-D converted three more times, with Lilly Loewenguth’s goal pulling the Rams even 11-11 with 8:07 to play.
Stops on both ends followed before Lily Loewenguth, with 4:07 left, fired home the goal for the Rams’ first lead of the game, and when it forced another John Jay turnover seconds later, it had a chance to run out the clock.
But heavy pressure from the Indians in the left corner forced a turnover. J-D pressed, but Wilmoth was able to fire the ball over every Rams player to a wide-open Melina O’Connor in front of the net, and she put it past Constantino with 1:34 to play.
So it was tied again, 12-12, and the all-important draw that followed turned into a wild scramble and J-D got it, only to turn it over on the near sideline.
JJ-CR then worked the remaining clock down until a foul at the point gave Wilmoth a free-position shot. Constantino had made eight saves, but here Wilmoth fired it past her.
There was still time for an answer if the Rams could win the ensuing draw, but the Indians grabbed it and ran out the clock, keeping its season alive and ending J-D’s state title quest, though JJ-CR would lose the state final 11-8 to Cold Spring Harbor.
Despite the disappointment, Rice said that expectations for the Red Rams’ program have grown with these two state semifinal appearances, as does the hunger to take it all the way to a state championship someday.
