CENTRAL NEW YORK – Late May is decision time in area high school girls lacrosse, with three different teams – Jamesville-DeWitt, Christian Brothers Academy and Fayetteville-Manlius – all carrying Section III championship ambitions.

In Class C, J-D holds the no. 3 seed, and would need to get through a quarterfinal Tuesday with no. 6 seed New Hartford in order to advance to Thursday’s semifinal at Alibrandi Stadium against no. 2 seed Fulton.

Up in Class B, it’s F-M as the no. 3 seed, hosting Central Square Tuesday for a spot in the semifinals against no. 2 seed Watertown, and CBA the no. 5 seed, needing to beat no. 4 seed Auburn at Holland Stadium to advance to a semifinal Thursday against top seed West Genesee. Both of those semifinals are at Nottingham High School.

Before that, though, the Red Rams and Brothers would face each other last Thursday night, and it proved quite a tense thriller, J-D ultimately defending its home turf and pulling out an 8-7 victory.

Much of the game was played in CBA’s end, meaning the Brothers’ defense was constantly stressed. Somehow, the game stayed close, Maddie Evans a big part of it as she engineered 16 saves.
J-D got away with just three goal-scorers. Lillian Wells had four goals and Merris Kessler a three-goal hat trick, the other goal going to Ella Parker.

Madison Ceclia led the Brothers with a three-goal hat trick of her own. Emery McCartney, Maeve Mackenzie and Ryann Murphy each had one goal and one assist, the other goal going to Caroline Harrigan.
CBA, having moved to no. 16 in last week’s state Class B rankings, began the week by pounding Mexico 19-3 last Monday night, led by four assists apiece from Madison Ceclia and Sydney Vaughn.

Vaughn got three goals and Ceclia two goals, with Mackenzie netting four goals. McCartney and Charlotte Wilson also had three-goal hat tricks as Harrigan earned two goals and Adele Summer got three assists. Kayla Ceclia picked up a goal and two assists.

Far tougher was J-D’s game on Tuesday against Auburn, who had worked its way to no. 19 in the state Class B rankings and seemed to be peaking just at the right time.

But the Rams defeated the Maroons 12-10, getting out in front and then deftly answering every time Auburn tried to catch up thanks to a three-pronged attack.

Wells finished with four goals and two assists. Brooke Bort also scored four times, with Kessler getting three goals. Sadie Withers helped with a goal and assist and Alexix Scaramuzzino added two assists.

Away from all this, Fayetteville-Manlius may have gained more from two defeats than it did by all of its victories this season.

For though the Hornets lost to Cicero-North Syracuse 11-10, the fact that it played the Northstars so close after getting blown out by them 19-6 late in April.

F-M played far better defense in the rematch, start to finish, and got a spectacular effort in goal from Micaela Jennings, who made 16 saves. Taylor Novack and Julianna Cogliandro each got three goals, with Camille Ryan and Addison Keyes each scoring twice.

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.

Then the same thing happened on Thursday, F-M nearly upending state Class B no. 5-ranked West Genesee but seeing its comeback fall just short in a 9-8 defeat.

This game little resembled the 15-6 loss the Hornets took to the Wildcats on April 30. Down most of the way, F-M made a late charge and almost caught up, requiring the Wildcats’ defense to make several key stops.

Novack earned five assists, often passing it to Cogliandro and McNany, who had three goals apiece. Micaela Jennings earned 12 saves as Molly Doran had two goals and two assists to lead WG and Allie Hanlon, with eight saves, broke John Galloway’s school record of 619 saves, reaching 623.

East Syracuse Minoa lost last Tuesday to Central Square 16-5. Sophia Ferris scored twice, with single goals going to Jordis Aldrich, Liliana DiNatale and Anna Paduano as Sara Godleski recorded 12 saves. Lauren McCorry (four goals, one assist) and Hannah Reichard (three goals, four assists) paced the Redhawks.