ONONDAGA COUNTY – Right before it set out to earn the Section III Class A championship it has wanted for three years, the Cicero-North Syracuse girls lacrosse team endured one more moment of serious stress.
It came in Tuesday night’s game against Fayetteville-Manlius at Bragman Stadium, where the Northstars were challenged by the Hornets, but still pulled out an 11-10 decision.
This was just the type of close contest C-NS did not win just one week earlier, when it fell 8-7 to Penfield and, by doing so, slipped to no. 9 in the latest state Class A rankings.
Now, against an F-M side it routed 19-6 on April 25, the Hornets presented a far different challenge in the rematch, playing solid defense start to finish and getting a spectacular effort in goal from Micaela Jennings, who made 16 saves.
Only at the end did C-NS get out of it, helped by its superior depth as it had seven different goal-scorers and four of them – Kaelyn Reid, Mackenzie Prentice, Marissa Doty and Gabby Putman – each finding the net twice.
Putman also had 11 draw controls and Doty four draw controls as Gabby Pauline and Brooke Molchanoff each had one goal and one assist. Elizabeth Smith added a goal and assists were credited to Sophia Nesci and Ella Grotto.
C-NS would not have as much stress on Thursday night, unloading on a once-powerful Baldwinsville squad in a 19-4 victory that saw several different standout performances and completed a 14-2 regular season.
Putman, aside from her four goals and three assists, won 14 draws, while Doty piled up six goals, doubling her previous best effort from an April game against West Genesee.
Three others – Smith, Molchanoff and Nesci – gained three-goal hat tricks. Prentice and Isabella Gates both had two assists as Natalie Wilson had one goal and one assist and Sophia Graham converted, too.
Liverpool took on B’ville Tuesday night on its home turf at LHS Stadium and rolled past the Bees 14-6 in a contest more lopsided than the 11-8 game the Warriors pulled out back in April.
Gianna Carbone and Mia Berthoff took turns leading the attack. Both finished with eight points as Carbone netted five goals and three assists and Berthoff scored three times to go with five assists.
They had help, too, especially from Maura Woods, who had her own three-goal hat trick. Lauren Sacco got two assists, with single goals credited to Cali Brancato, Addyson Graham and Addison Sullivan and Gianna Tantalo turning back 10 of B’ville’s 16 shots.
All of this proved a sneak preview, though, because Liverpool and B’ville meet again Thursday at 7:30 at Central Square in the Section III Class A semifinal, right after the top seed, C-NS, meets the winner of Tuesday’s Rome Free Academy-Syracuse City game in the first semifinal. The title game is May 28 at 7:30 at SUNY-Cortland.
