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High school girls lacrosse: Watertown, South Jefferson denied in Section 3 finals

CORTLAND — The South Jefferson and Watertown girls lacrosse came into Thursday night with high hopes of successfully defending their Section 3 titles and getting back to the state playoffs.

Yet both were turned away in their respective finals, with each coming up short in comeback attempts.

In a close finish that went down to the wire, Watertown came storming back to take the lead in the final minutes, only to let the opportunity slip away in a 13-12 loss to Fayetteville-Manlius in the Class B title game at SUNY Cortland.

Then on the same field, Jamesville-DeWitt outlasted South Jefferson to record a 10-7 triumph in the Class C final.

FAYETTEVILLE-MANLIUS 13, WATERTOWN 12

The top-seeded Hornets held off the second-seeded Cyclones to prevail in the Class B final.

The Cyclones who trailed by as many as three goals in the second half, tied the game at 11-all as Olivia Macutek scored on a free-position attempt with 8 minutes, 46 seconds left in regulation.

Watertown then took a 12-11 lead as Adriana Arthur converted on a free-position shot with 7:05 remaining.

“We knew coming into it that is was going to be a tough game and it was going to come down to the very end,” Macutek, a junior midfielder, said. “And our team we fought back to get the lead at the end and our goalie made a couple key saves and we had big players stepping up in the offense and we worked really well together as a team.

“This one is going to hurt, but we just have to keep moving forward and hope that next season we can come out with a win.”

But F-M came back to draw even at 12-12 on an unassisted goal from Helen Dougherty with 6:02 left and Jane Ryan followed with the go-ahead tally with 3:07 remaining.

Undaunted, the Cyclones fought right down to the end as they hit a goal pipe and Hornets’ goalie Efimia Everding made two saves in the final 30 seconds, corralling the ball on their last shot.

“That’s what you practice and train for all year for that perfect situation and it’s super upsetting when you can’t capitalize on it,” Macutek said. “But I’m super proud of our team.”

“It was just hard to find each other,” Arthur, who is a senior forward, said. “I mean F-M, they have good (defense) and we couldn’t find each other for the goal.”

Watertown’s defense, led by junior Lucy Swartz, strengthened in the second half, allowing only four goals, including limiting F-M to one tally in the third quarter.

Goalie Lilah Bierl made six saves on the night for the Cyclones to help keep them within reach of the Hornets. Her counterpart Everding totaled eight saves.

“Our defense works really, really hard to shut down teams,” Arthur said. “Lilah our goalie made some amazing saves and kept us in it. They did a good job getting us the ball back on offense.”

Taylor Novack supplied four goals and two assists to pace F-M, and Mallory Burns and Ryan each scored three goals, while Dougherty contributed two goals and two assists.

Watertown, which reached a sectional final for the second straight year, finished its season at 12-6.

“I think I said it from the beginning that I have a group of girls that never quit and work their hardest for the whole game,” Watertown coach Taylor Purvis said. “That’s one thing that we said from the jump, they have the grit, they have the determination, they’re going to play the whole 48 minutes, whether you’re down or up.”

Arthur generated six goals to lead Watertown, Milan Gosier totaled two goals and two assists and Macutek and Julia Covey each provided two goals and an assist.

“It was definitely a battle, we were expecting it,” Arthur said. “We were really prepared for this game and to come out strong, which is what we did, we worked to the final whistle. I’m really proud of everyone, we worked really hard, we worked hard in practice building up to it, too, even though it wasn’t the ending we wanted.”

The Cyclones defeated Auburn 11-7, in a semifinal last Thursday to reach the title game.

Last year, Watertown bested Auburn to win the Class B title and advanced to a state quarterfinal.

Earlier on Tuesday, Watertown led 3-2 before F-M generated a 5-0 run, which extended into the second quarter, to build a four-goal lead at 7-3.

The Cyclones twice closed within two goals, including a tally from Arthur with 33.7 seconds left in the first half.

But after winning the draw, the Hornets carried a 9-6 advantage into halftime on a free-position goal from Mallory Burns with 11.6 remaining.

“It’s very tough,” Arthur said of the outcome. “I’ve been on the team for four years and I love being a part of that. It’s really sad that it’s come to an end, but I couldn’t be more proud of my team and my teammates with the way we fought right to the end.”

JAMESVILLE-DEWITT 10, SOUTH JEFFERSON 7

The second-seeded Red Rams rode a strong start and went on to outlast the top-seeded Spartans in the Class C final.

In a meeting of two teams ranked in the top four in the state in Class C, Jamesville-DeWitt denied South Jefferson’s bid to win a third straight sectional title.

“We definitely battled and never gave up until the end,” Spartans senior goalie Emma Vespa said “The first quarter was definitely very tough and we kept us in it, but that gap that they pulled ahead by we just couldn’t close it.

“I thought we played as good as we could and the result showed that they definitely deserved it.”

After yielding an early goal, the Red Rams led the rest of the way to hold off the Spartans.

“I thought they played their game and that worked for them,” South Jefferson coach Jen Williams said of Jamesville-DeWitt. “And I think that was important that they stuck to the way they play, they play very consistent to what they do, and it worked, right? I think they were able to play the J-D way and it was successful for them.

“And we just did a lot of hesitating I think and that cost us a couple times. We just didn’t seem to be able to recover from that two-goal deficit, we just didn’t get it under two the whole game,” Williams said. “I think they held that pretty well and every time we answered with a goal or two, they were able to respond.”

South Jefferson scored the first goal of the game, but trailed by three goals at halftime at 6-3.

The Spartans drew within two goals twice the third quarter, but the Red Rams generated back-to-back goals on a tally each from Kylee Gallagher and Gabriella Doumit to build a 9-5 advantage heading into the final period.

“I think the first couple of goals that they had kind of set the tone a little bit, and then we were kind of playing catchup, which we did eventually,” Spartans sophomore defender Kendra Staie. “But it was just a little bit too late in the game,”

South Jefferson answered with unassisted goals from Jordynn Hazard and Amalia Netto, with Netto’s goal coming with 7:39 left in regulation to close within 9-7.

But the Spartans would get no closer as Maggie Bliss added an unassisted tally with 5:34 left for the final margin for Jamesville-DeWitt (16-2).

“Their draw girls are amazing, but so are ours, I think it just came down to grit and determination,” Vespa said. “And we just weren’t able to capitalize on what we had even though we were coming down with the ball more, shooting more, I just think they were able to capitalize more on their possessions.”

Goalie Pearson Eckrich made nine saves to record the win for the Red Rams.

Aliana West scored two goals and assisted on two others and also won 10 draw controls, and Netto supplied a pair of goals and Emma Kelley contributed a goal and three assists to pace the Spartans, who finished their season at 16-3.

“The draw was going to be a battle and I though Ali did a good job of battling back and it ended up being equal,” Williams said. “So that showed good recovery on Ali’s part, it also showed a lot of grit on our part to be able to get some stops, I think it got to four at one point and we were able to come back a couple times to get within two, which was good. But their goalie is fantastic and she was able to save a lot of our high shots.”

South Jefferson won the past two Section 3 titles in Class D, reaching the state final two years ago and made the state semifinal last season.

“Even though we didn’t win today, it’s a lot to say that we made it here with three starting freshmen and a few starting sophomores and we were able to battle like we did,” Vespa said.

The Spartans, who also reached a sectional final for the fourth consecutive year, came into the game ranked No. 3 in the state after moving up a class this year.

“This group is amazing, it’s definitely very hard on some youngsters to keep up with this high, intense pace,” Vespa said. “They’re not really used to it sometimes, we have freshmen out there on the field who have never been in a situation before, but they definitely showed up. We’ll just come back to it next year and just grind even harder.

“We’re all definitely sad of course, but I’m really proud of how everybody played,” Kendra Staie said. “We never gave up and we were determined no matter what, we just kept going, so we’re upset that we lost, but I think we played well and were determined.”

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