CENTRAL NEW YORK – An impressive season-opening win over Homer gave the Cazenovia girls lacrosse team a lot of confidence, and it nearly led to two other victories in the first full week of April.
Hosting the combined Southern Hills Storm side last Tuesday afternoon, the Lakers were in the battle all the way to the final seconds, but could not quite catch up to the Storm, taking a 12-11 defeat.
Cazenovia trailed 8-6 at halftime to this new Southern Hills side that combined players from LaFayette, Tully Onondaga and Fabius-Pompey, and then battled back.
Riley Knapp netted three goals and added an assist. Julia Reff, Charlie Prior and Hayden Bubble each scored twice, with Madison DeAngelis earning a goal and two assists and Katie Rajkowski also scoring.
To hang on, the Storm needed a great performance in the net from Kiera Reed, who made 11 saves, plus four goals and four assists from Kensington Keane and three goals apiece from Ava Spicer and Madelyn Lund.
Almost the same thing happened on Thursday against Oswego, the Lakers close all the way but again defeated by a single goal as the Buccaneers got the game-winner in the last minute of regulation and prevailed 13-12.
Knapp and Rajkowski had three goals apiece. Reff and Sally Hughes each got two goals, with Bubble and Prior both earning one goal and DeAngelis earning two assists. For Oswego, Kylie Britton (five goals, two assists) and Mia Fierro (three goals, three assists) both had strong showings.
