Leading off today: After blowing a five-goal lead late and falling behind with under five minutes left,
John Jay Cross River rallied to beat Jamesville-DeWitt 13-12 on a free position goal from Charlotte Wilmoth with 14.9 seconds remaining to clinch a dramatic 13-12 win in the NYSPHSAA girls Class C lacrosse semifinals at SUNY Cortland on Friday.
JJCR advanced to its first state final, where it will take on Cold Spring Harbor on Saturday.
Two weeks ago, JJCR trailed by three goals late in its Section 1 final vs. Rye before pulling out a win.
"The entire team has rallied around our seniors because they are an incredible group of six kids," coach Stacey Wierl said. "They have really sparked an incredible culture in our lacrosse community."
Trailing 10-5 early in the second half, Jamesville-Dewitt went on a 6-1 run capped by a goal from Lily Loewenguth with 8:07 to play. The Red Rams took the lead four minutes later on a goal from Riley Latray (four goals).
Melina O'Connor tied the game on a feed from Wilmoth (three goals, one assist) with 1:34 left, setting the stage for the game-winner after Cara O'Reilly won the ensuing draw.
"For the past two seasons now, we've established as a team that we don't let down," Wierl said. "When things don't go our way, we make sure that we rally around each other. There was never a moment of doubt."
• Her second goal of the game was NO. 200 in Wilmoth's career.
Overtime drama: Katie Pascale scored her sixth goal of the game on a free-position shot 48 seconds into overtime to lift Baldwinsville to a 15-14 win over Bethlehem in the Class A semifinals.
It was a game of momentum swings, with the Bees leading by six in the first half, Bethlehem surging to a two-goal advantage late and then Baldwinsville fighting to tie the game twice in the waning moments to keep alive hopes of its first state crown since 2000.
"Honestly, I think we just weren't done," said Baldwinsville attack Emma States, who scored the tying goal with :26 to go. "The whole season, states is our goal. We had just lit a fire under our butts and we all agreed that we've got to give it our all. We came up with everything we needed to and we just finished strong."
Emma Gebhardt scored four times for the Bees and States and Jenna Pastore added two apiece. Lauren Riker led Bethlehem with five goals.
Sec. 5 swept aside: One of the truisms of girls lacrosse is that it's never a good year to be paired with the Long Island representative in the state tournament semifinals. Given the depth of Nassau and Suffolk counties, few schools north of New York City live to see another day in the tourney.
It was Section 5's turn to be flogged Friday, with Section 8 or 11 opponents sweeping the Rochester representatives.
In Class A, Northport used five goals from Olivia Carner and four by Kaylie Mackiewicz to dominate Pittsford 13-3 at SUNY Cortland. Kate McLam chipped in with one goal and four assists.
Sixth-year varsity player Claire Morris made four of her