CENTRAL NEW YORK – Given what it had done throughout the regular season, the Cazenovia girls soccer team had to feel good about its ability to make a deep run in the Section III Class B playoffs.
And that confidence only had to increase in the wake of the Lakers going to Marcellus last Tuesday night and putting together a 2-1 victory over the Mustangs.
Long a Class B power, Marcellus had, after an uneven start, played well in recent weeks, but that didn’t faze Cazenovia, who battled its way through a scoreless first half, patiently waiting for a breakthrough.
It arrived in the 52nd minute when Katie Rajkowski sent a long, hard shot past JoJo Leubner. The Lakers then made it 2-0 when Ella Baker took advantage of a misplay on a corner kick to convert.
Battling to the end, the Mustangs cut it to one on Janie Powell’s goal with 1:35 left, but it proved too late. Leubner finished with eight saves as Marcellus saw six of seven shots stopped by Skye Stanford.
Great as this was, Cazenovia did not want to have a letdown when it visited Chittenango two nights later, but there wasn’t anything close as the Lakers bashed the Bears 5-1.
Julia Reff’s goal got Cazenovia on the board, assisted by Rajkowski. Then Riley Knapp converted, Ava Vanetti getting the assist on what proved to be the game-winner.
Far from done, Vanetti would hit on back-to-back goals to spread out the Lakers’ margin, converting off a corner kick from Raeanne Thompson and then assisted by Baker.
Reff then topped off the scoring as Thompson, Dinah Gifford and Sami Carnahan all had strong defensive showings All that Chittenango could manage was a goal by Brooke Walters, assisted by Abby Scheidelman. Rebecca Baldwin, busy in the net, recorded 15 saves.
Playing again on Saturday, Cazenovia blanked Canastota 4-0, led by Reff’s pair of goals. Riley Knapp had one goal and one assist, with Caitlyn Smithers also converting as the Lakers finished its regular season at 12-3-1.
All this led to the Lakers having the no. 6 seed for the sectional tournament – and a rematch with Marcellus, the no. 11 seed, in Tuesday’s opening round, the winner to get Lowville or Phoenix in the quarterfinals.
