CENTEREACH – In one sense, the Cicero-North Syracuse field hockey team had already achieved its main goal by reaching the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship weekend on Long Island.
However, the idea of a first-ever state title still drove the Northstars, and with an all-out effort it got to the brink of making history, only to get denied in overtime of the title game by the reigning state champions from Northport.
Early on Saturday morning, C-NS took the field at Centereach High School to face Section VI’s Clarence in the state semifinal, and it proved yet another showcase for Chrissy Wagner as her hat trick beat the Red Devils 3-1.
Here there was not the quick goal that C-NS got against Greene in the regional round a week earlier as the Northstars and Red Devils played through a scoreless first quarter.
But the Northstars went out in front 2:40 into the second quarter when Wagner struck for the first time, and C-NS would maintain that margin until halftime.
And it continued to stay that way as the Northstars’ defense stymied Clarence again in the third quarter, bringing the Section III champions closer to a state championship appearance.
Wagner returned two minutes into the fourth quarter and, once again burning the Red Devils’ defense, struck for her team-best 16th goal of the season to go with her 16 assists to make it 2-0.
Clarence quickly answered with Elle Ridge’s goal to cut the margin to one, but C-NS all but sealed victory when Wagner fired home her third goal with 4:40 left.
In the other semifinal, Northport and Scarsdale battled into OT before the Tigers prevailed 1-0, so it was the Long Island champions who awaited in Sunday morning’s championship game.
Not since 2006, when it lost to Lakeland, had C-NS reached the doorstep of a state title. And it was trying to get it at the expense of a Northport side that won it all on this exact same field 12 months earlier.
Both sides would have three penalty corners in the opening period, converting none of them, but in the second period it was the Tigers that were on the front foot.
Forced into constant defensive mode, the Northstars turned away six penalty corners Avery Richardson amassed six saves in the first half, two in the closing second that kept the game 0-0 going into the break.
In the third quarter, though, the Tigers went out in front, Julia Cavallo scoring off a feed from Olivia McKenna. Two minutes later, though, Wagner, on a penalty corner, drew in the defense and passed it to Maria Wonzicka, who converted to tie it, 1-1.
All through the fourth quarter, C-NS and Northport turned away attempts to decide matters, meaning that the state final would require a seven-on-seven OT period.
With more space for both teams, the attacks were frequent, and when the Tigers applied pressure, it forced C-NS to commit a foul inside the restricted space.
Instead of a penalty corner, which is easier to defend, Northport was awarded a penalty stroke. One-on-one, McKenna faced Richardson, who had made 16 saves to that point, and, when she fired in the goal, the Tigers had a 2-1 victory and back-to-back state championships.
By that slim margin, C-NS was thwarted, but it still was a special season, from the 11-0 start to the comeback from a 2-0 deficit to beat Rome Free Academy in the sectional final to Wagner’s hat trick in the state semifinal game.
And while Wagner, Richadson and Shannon Brown graduate, most of the Northstars’ starting lineup, including its entire defense and Woznicka, Gabby Wameling, Addie Esce, Gabby Pauline and Eva Farone, come back in 2023.
