BALDWINSVILLE – Maybe it figured that, in order to break a Section III championship drought that stretched back to 1997, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls lacrosse team had to go to the brink several times without falling over.
All that mattered, though, was that when Mackenzie Prentice converted in the second overtime period of Saturday’s sectional Class A final at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, the Northstars had pulled out a 12-11 victory over top seed Baldwinsville.
With a roster full of young talent and a terrific first-year head coach in Stephanie Prentice, C-NS, who made a remarkable turnaround from a 1-15 record the last time it played in 2019, won this title as much on its desire and heart, refusing to give in when faced with early adversity and standing firm just when it looked like the prize was slipping away.
In order to erase an early 5-1 deficit, the Northstars needed a furious charge late in the first half, scoring six times, three of them by Molly Molchanoff. Angela Beardsley converted in the last minute of the half to tie it, 7-7, going into the break.
Molchanoff wasn’t done, either, adding her fourth and fifth goals during a tense exchange early in the second half before it settled into a long stalemate, neither side able to convert for more than nine minutes.
Fran Tortora broke that deadlock with 8:03 to play, and after Carly Desimone tied it a minute later, Tortora returned to hit on her third goal with 3:32 left.
Protecting an 11-10 lead, the Northstars won the ensuing draw and ran off more than two minutes of clock, only to turn it over and watch B’ville charge down the field, setting up a free-position opportunity that Desimone converted for her fifth goal with 45.9 seconds to play.
Now C-NS’s defense was put on the spot, saved when Desimone’s shot in the waning seconds of regulation ringed off the post, just as Jenna Irwin’s possible game-winner had done so for Liverpool in overtime of C-NS’s sectional quarterfinal win.
Then Nicole O’Neil, who had seven saves overall, managed to stop DeSimone point-blank two minutes into the first OT, allowing the game to reach a second extra period.
Again with the ball in the second OT, the Northstars watched the Bees’ defenders converge on freshman Brooke Molchanoff in back of the net, but she fired it to Mackenzie Prentice up front.
Nearly two hours earlier, Prentice had put in the game’s first goal at the 56-second mark. Now, firing it past Samantha Tanguay, she put in the last goal – one that brought C-NS a long-awaited championship.
