CORTLAND – A special play, at a special moment, allowed the Skaneateles girls lacrosse team to claim yet another Section III championship.
Julia O’Connor’s goal with 11.6 seconds left in regulation pushed the no. 2 seed Lakers past top seed South Jefferson 8-7 in Tuesday night’s tense sectional final at SUNY-Cortland, a game played at a high level by both sides decided by a high-level move.
It wasn’t the first time a big game was won by Skaneateles on the Cortland turf through a highlight-reel play, but what O’Connor did was particularly memorable.
Three times in the second half, goals by Bella Brogan had put the Lakers in front, only to have the Spartans answer both times. And the Spartans may have got away were it not for several point-bank stops made by Skaneateles goalie Rachelle Cain.
Then, with two minutes left, South Jefferson had a free-position chance, but an aggressive Lakers defense forced a turnover. Going the other way, Skaneateles called a time-out with 1:36 to play.
As it passed the ball and burned up time, South Jefferson defenders had reason to think the Lakers would hold for a shot as close to the end of regulation as possible. But with 15 seconds left, O’Connor, from the left side, drew a defender to her but then managed to make a 360-degree spin and, in one motion, fire the ball past Spartans goalie Jennaca McGill.
It was O’Connor’s fourth goal of the night. She had netted the other three in the first half, all on free-position opportunities, carrying the Skaneateles attack and helping it erase an early 4-1 deficit.
South Jefferson won all nine of the first-half draws, yet constantly got turned back by Ella Bobbett, Maeve McNeil, Katie Reed and the rest of the Lakers’ defenders, and when that didn’t work, Cain would make a timely stop.
Brogan’s goal late in the first half made it 4-4 at intermission. Then she converted three more as the rest of the Lakers were bottled up, with only single assists going to Kathryn Morrissey and Lilly Marquardt.
Macy Shultz, Jordyn Badalato and Maddi Barney led the Spartans with two goals apiece. Yet Cain kept them from more and set the stage for O’Connor to deliver another championship to the Lakers.
The joy felt in Skaneateles was not replicated by West Genesee in the sectional Class B title game, the top-seeded Wildcats upended by no. 2 seed Fayetteville-Manlius in a 13-8 defeat.
Both regular-season meetings had gone in the Wildcats’ favor, by margins of 11-10 on April 20 and 19-13 on May 5. And this one started well, too, as Reis Pagan netted three early goals to give WG a 3-1 advantage.
Quickly, though, it was apparent F-M had learned plenty from those first two meetings and were ready to apply the lessons.
Five straight goals from four different players in the middle portion of the first half gave the Hornets a lead it would not relinquish, and Ava Angello, who had two of those goals, scored again to answer one from Rylee Gonzalez as WG went to halftime trailing 7-4.
The second half amounted to a long, futile chase on the Wildcats’ parts. Twice, it pulled within a two-goal margin, including when Cara Major converted with 9:02 to play that reduced F-M’s lead to 10-8.
But a key defensive stop by Julia Tedeschi followed and, with 5:17 left, Julianna Cogliandro put one past Allie Hanlon to make it 10-8. Mary Leonard tacked on a pair of insurance goals to seal F-M’s win.
Angello, with five goals, and Emily Noel, with two goals and four assists, paced the Hornets. Courtney Reynolds was the only player other than Pagan to score twice for the Wildcats as Olivia Blanding added a goal.
