CICERO – Mere inches – or, to put it more accurately, the ping of a ball off the left post – separated the Cicero-North Syracuse girls lacrosse team from seeing its season end at the expense of its rivals from Liverpool.
But Jenna Irwin’s shot did not find the net – and less than two minutes later, when Molly Molchanoff converted, the Northstars had prevailed 12-11 in a classic playoff battle Tuesday night at Bragman Stadium, earning a berth in the Section III Class A semifinals against West Genesee.
That it was so close and tense was hardly a surprise. Though C-NS had won each of the first two regular-season meetings with Liverpool, the Warriors had taken the third encounter 19-13 and was confident it could win here, too.
And that was not shaken by the Northstars sprinting out to a 5-1 lead with Fran Tortora hitting on three of those goals. Maggie TIfft’s three consecutive tallies quickly cut the margin to 5-4, and it went back and forth the rest of the half, C-NS leading 7-5 at the break.
Liverpool had more first-half chances, but C-NS goalie Nicole O’Neill stopped nine of 14 shots. When O’Neill went out early in the second half, though, the Warriors caught up, tying the game 9-9 with Tifft’s fifth goal.
After regaining the lead 10-9, the Northstars would go nearly 12 minutes without a goal, but Liverpool didn’t take full advantage, even though Macy Moore tied it and Tifft, earning her sixth goal with 7:23 left, gave the Warriors the lead for the first time.
O’Neill went back in the net and made a key point-blank stop on Irwin, setting up a C-NS transition that Malchnoff finished off by putting in the tying goal with 4:29 left.
A long Liverpool possession late in regulation did not result in a winning goal, and when a Northstars scramble led to a turnover in the waning seconds, OT was needed.
Irwin won the draw and the Warriors worked it around until it drew a foul and Irwin gained a free-position shot to win it. And her shot beat O’Neill – but crashed off the pipe.
In the ensuing scramble, C-NS gained possession and went to the other end. Malchanoff, from the point, powered through several defenders and, 2:25 into OT, beat Abby Cole for the game-winner.
Whether it meant anything more depended on Thursday’s semifinal between C-NS and no. 2 seed West Genesee, whom the Northstars had also beaten twice in the regular season.
C-NS then prevailed a third time over the Wildcats, a 14-11 victory built upon a more diverse attack that allowed the Northstars to lead start to finish, racing out to a 13-6 lead by the middle of the second half.
WG rallied late, but the Northstars had enough of a cushion. Tortora got three goals and three assists, with both Molly and Brooke Malchanoff notching three goals and one assist as Mackenzie Prentice scored twice and single goals went to Angela Beardsley, Payton Baker and Jenna Pickard.
