CENTRAL NEW YORK – For a large group of Cazenovia field hockey seniors, all the work of the off-season, the ups and downs of a regular season and an entire high school career has led to what is about to happen.
The Lakers enter the Section III Class C playoffs with an offense that can put up big numbers of goals and a defense that has recorded 13 shutouts.
They will also do so with plenty of emotional fuel as they all want to send the program’s long-time junior varsity coach, Maureen Carroll, out with a championship to celebrate.
Carroll is stepping down after spending more than 35 years teaching and guiding Cazenovia’s young players, first as varsity coach, then as JV coach when Maureen Scheftic took over in 1998.
Like so many others on past sectional and state championship squads, this group of Lakers flourished under Carroll’s tutelage and has taken that to the varsity level, where Cazenovia has produced an 11-2-2 regular season.
At Cortland Wednesday night, both the offense and defense excelled again in the course of a 6-0 victory over the Purple Tigers.
A defense that had not surrendered anything since a Sept. 26 loss to Camden constantly cleared it and set up an attack that took 16 shots overall.
For the second time in three games, Reid McMurtrie recorded a hat trick, her three goals increasing her season total to 20. Maya Gilmore converted twice, with Jordan Bradley earning the other goal. Three others – Margaret Huftalen, Avelyn Wallace and Lucile Hagan – each got assists.
Then Cazenovia faced Homer 24 hours later. First, though, there was Carroll’s farewell game as JV coach, and that group of Lakers won 5-0.
Even before they took the field, varsity players presented Carroll with flowers, an emotional ceremony that, in other instances, may have caused the Lakers to lose some focus.
That didn’t happen here, though. Scoring once in each of the first three quarters, Cazenovia put away Homer 3-0, McMurtrie getting her 21st and 22nd goals of the fall and Gilmore also finding the net as Huftalen earned an assist.
Six teams made the sectional Class C playoffs -and Cazenovia, as the no. 2 seed, has a bye straight into next Sunday’s semifinal at noon at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, where the Lakers will meet the winner of Wednesday’s opening-round game between Homer and no. 3 seed Mount Markham.
