CORTLAND – A big shot, and an even bigger stop, gave the Baldwinsville girls lacrosse team another opportunity to claim the state Class A championship.
The combined heroics of Mia Pozzi and Sam Tanguay in the waning seconds of Friday’s state Class A semifinal at SUNY-Cortland were enough to push the Bees past Rush-Henrietta 7-6.
In a game where neither side had a lead of more than two goals, it only figured that it was even, 6-6, heading into the homestretch.
B’ville’s defense, strong throughout the game, forced a Royal Comets turnover as the clock ticked toward the final minute of regulation. Pushing it downfield, the Bees forced an R-H foul inside the circle, giving Pozzi a free-position shot.
Already with three goals on the day, Pozzi said that she knew Royal Comets goalie Angelie Oeschle liked to move her stick high, so she fired low – and put it past Oeschle with 27.6 seconds left.
R-H claimed the ensuing draw and called a time-out with 15. 2 seconds to play. From the right side, Lena Cox sprinted to the middle and, with the Bees’ defense shading toward her, fired it to a wide-open Ally Garrett in front of the net.
Tanguay waited. To this point, Tanugay had picked up six saves, most of them in the first half, which allowed the Bees to keep the Royal Comets from taking advantage of the many scoring opportunities it generated.
Having watched film of Garrett the night before, Tanguay said that she noticed that Garrett most often would shoot high, but that in pressure-filled situations like this, “there’s not a lot of time to think.”
All that Tanguay could do was react, remember her film study – and deny Garrett point-blank, allowing the Bees to hang on.
“She (Tanguay) saved our butts,” said Pozzi.
R-H had not reached the state final four since 2005. Yet the Royal Comets had won the Section V title by beating Pittsford, one of just two teams to beat B’ville in the regular season, and had outscored its three playoff opponents by a combined 37-17.
In short, it was a challenge that the Bees had to meet, which it immediately discovered as R-H controlled the game’s early flow, possessing the ball and forcing the B’ville defense to do lots of work.
Aside from Tanguay making several key early stops, the back line of Maeve Bartell, Sydney Huhtala and Makaelynn Nievel forced the Royal Comets into lower-percentage shots that often flew off target.
Trailing 3-2, the Bees tied it on Carlie Desimone’s goal and then got tallies from Pozzi and Brianna Peters and Mia Pozzi 21 seconds apart to go in front 5-3. But Garrett and Megan Schillinger countered for R-H, and it was 5-5 at the break.
When Pozzi put in her third goal 1:36 into the second half, B’ville went back in front, but then was shut out for much of the rest of the game as the Royal Comets’ defense denied the Bees from extending its lead.
Garrett tied it, 6-6, with 8:05 left. Once again, though, B’ville’s defense made a series of key stops, setting up the dramatic conclusion.
And now it’s a rematch of the 2019 state final, B’ville trying to get revenge against Long Island’s Northport, who won that title game 10-8 three years ago and defeated Suffern 12-7 in the other state semifinal.
