CORTLAND – This group of West Genesee girls lacrosse players was not about to stop until it reached the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class B championship game.
Taking charge early in the second half, the Wildcats then had to hold on and defeat Section I’s Horace Greeley 10-9 in Friday nights’s state semifinal at SUNY-Cortland.
Not until WG’s defense forced a turnover on the Quakers’ last possession in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter could it preserve its return to the final and the chance at a seventh state championship in program history.
Having reached the state semifinal for the second year in a row, WG was bent on avoiding a repeat of its 2023 defeat to Garden City, and got on the board first with Keira Vrabel’s goal less than two minutes into the game.
Greeley answered, though, cracking down on defense just as rain and wind fell late in the first quarter and scoring twice to go in front for the only time before Mia Gialto converted in the waning seconds of the period to tie it, 2-2.
Gialto returned for second goal 1:05 into the second quarter. After the Quakers pulled even again, Ashleigh Blanding struck twice in a 35-second span, scoring on a free position and assisting on Molly Doran’s goal to put WG up for good.
As the rain let up, Doran fed Sophia Lawrence to stretch out the margin to 6-3, and Maria Snyder converted, too, but both times Greeley countered, including an end-to-end run and goal by Rowan Edson in the final seconds that made it 7-5 going to the break.
Allie Hanlon made back-to-back point-blank stops early in the third quarter, and in a player-up situation Doran and Payton Jeffery scored 42 seconds apart which, along with Doran’s third goal, stretched the margin to 10-6 before Hanlon made two more key stops late in the period.
By the time the sun returned for the fourth quarter, WG was clamping down on defense. In two long sequences, it prevented Greeley from a single shot and forced turnovers due to the hard work of Hannah Sparks, Maddie Ryder, Addie Foster and Sienna Barry on the back line.
Still, the Quakers kept pushing, and goals by Edson and Bae Bounds in a 26-second span cut WG’s margin in half, to 10-8. Then Taylor Rice converted on a free position with 3:18 to play, and the Wildcats’ lead was down to a single goal.
Again Greeley got possession, and over the course of the last three minutes it probed everywhere, but timely double teams on Edson and Bounds led to that decisive turnover and Hanlon never had to face a potential game-tying shot.
WG will face Victor, the defending state champions, in the Class B state final after the Blue Devils, in the other semifinal against West Islip, nearly surrendered its own fourth-quarter lead before pulling it out 11-10.
