CENTRAL NEW YORK – All those years on the grass behind Burton Street Elementary School, and all the memories built by teams that won Section III, regional and state championships – they will always stay with the Cazenovia field hockey team.
But the future of the program collided with its present early last week when the Lakers were the first teams to practice on the new upper-level artificial turf field next to the high school.
Not only was there practices, but Cazenovia would get a home game when Port Byron/Union Springs visited Friday as part of a full weekend of Homecoming festivities.
First, the girls soccer teams from Cazenovia and Chittenango met. Then it was field hockey’s turn, and it proved an exciting contest between two strong opponents, even if it ended in a 0-0 tie.
Port Byron/Union Springs arrived with a 7-1-1 mark, its lone blemish a 3-1 defeat at home to the Lakers on Sept. 6. Three weeks later, the Pantthers did all it could to try and mar Cazenovia’s festivities.
Through 60 minutes of field hockey, Port Byron/Union Springs absorbed a host of pressure and turned it all back, with goalie Katelyn Ware exceptional as she stopped all 17 shots she faced.
For its part, the Lakers also had a better adjustment to the turf on the defensive side, ultimately limiting the Panthers to seven shots, all stopped by Maddy Rothfeld.
It all came after the Lakers’ trip to Camden last Tuesday where it saw a six-game win streak stopped by the Blue Devils in a tense 2-1 defeat.
Camden, emerging again as a Class B favorite this fall with a 6-3 record, struck in the first quarter and maintained that 1-0 advantage until the third quarter, when Meghan Mehlbaum netted the tying goal, assisted by Reid McMurtrie.
Absorbing this, the Blue Devils reclaimed the lead in the fourth quarter and held on, having seen Arianna Fox and Rhyanne Johnson pick up the two goals.
Three straight road games await Cazenovia this week as it would travel Tuesday to Weedsport, Thursday to Cato-Meridian and Saturday to Homer.
