Girls lacrosse: Mamaroneck breaks tie late in game, upsets No. 1 Fox Lane to reach final
BEDFORD — After the Mamaroneck girls lacrosse team fell by a goal to Horace Greeley May 2, it found itself with more losses than wins on the season at 6-7.
It was unfamiliar territory and not at all where it wanted to be.
Funny how three weeks can sometimes seem like ancient history.
On Monday, Mamaroneck, which won its final three regular-season games and entered the Section 1 Class A playoffs as the No. 5 seed, won its second playoff game.
And it was a big one.
The visiting Tigers broke an 8-8 tie with top-seeded Fox Lane on a Shawn Rosenblatt 8-meter free shot with 6:02 left, then went into a stall for about five minutes, before adding an insurance goal to notch a 10-8 win.
What it means
Mamaroneck is now within a game of claiming its first ever Section 1 girls lacrosse championship.
But standing between it and that prize is No. 2 seed Suffern, which beat it 15-7 March 31.
The championship game will take place Thursday at 4 p.m. at the Torne Valley Sports Complex in Hillburn.
Mamaroneck is 11-7 and Suffern is15-3.
Fox Lane, whose squad included 10 seniors, finished its season 15-3.
Player of the game
Top game honors were shared between Rosenblatt, who had three goals and three assists and Lyla Hurley, who poured in five goals, including three in the first half, when Mamaroneck built a 5-4 lead.
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By the numbers
A back-and-forth second half saw Fox Lane take a 6-5 lead before Mamaroneck scored three straight times and then the Foxes responded with a pair of goals.
A Sophie Bueti steal in the Fox defensive end led to a Nicole Castaldo one-hop, 8-meter free goal and Eugenia Kaltsas scored the game-tying goal off a Maddie Broghammer feed with 8:56 to play.
But that would be all the scoring for Fox Lane, thanks, in part, to a great stop by Tiger goalie Shannon Gallagher on a hard, low shot by Emma Greene with about 7:50 left.
Soon after a yellow-card foul put Fox Lane down a player for two minutes.
One minute and two seconds into that penalty, Rosenblatt scored the last of her three goals off an 8-meter free shot that saw her run left to right before burying her shot high.
That goal came with 6:02 to play.
Mamaroneck won the ensuing draw and, with no shot clock and a 9-8 lead, went into a prolonged stall, simply playing keep-away with the ball.
When, in desperation, Fox keeper Sophie Kothari left her net to try to force a turnover, Dillon Troy found Hurley alone in front of the vacant net and, with 52 seconds remaining, Hurley sealed the upset win with her fifth goal.
Clara Sosa also had two goals for Mamaroneck .
Callie Roseberry and Troy both had two assists and Kenna Winters had one assist.
Zoe Stonecipher, Fox Lane's high-scoring freshman, netted three first-half goals before Tiger junior Harper Chinn was assigned to face-guard her and shut her out from there.
Eugenia Kaltsas had two goals and MaryKate Loveless and Michaela Kaltsas each had one goal for Fox Lane.
Greene had two assists and Loveless had one assist.
Gallagher had eight saves to the Tigers and Kothari had six saves for Fox Lane.
Quotables
First-year Fox Lane coach Jamie Williams noted his club failed to cash in on some offensive opportunities with shots "just a little wide or over the goal."
"We connect on those shots and it's a little different," he said.
But he also praised his team, calling it a "special group" that bought into what was coached and gave its all.
Tiger coach Rocky Lividini-Gilbert, whose squad also includes 10 seniors, pointed to Chin's play on Stonecipher as one of the keys to the win, saying Chinn didn't let Stonecipher touch the ball.
Of the season, she said, "I think we peaked a little late." But she she liked the fact "everybody dug deep."
Hurley, who's committed to play for the Division I University of Oregon, joked her team had said so often during the regular season that it had to turn over a new leaf that, "at this point, we've kind of grown a new tree."
Noting Mamaroneck had multiple close losses, she pointed to the one-goal loss to Greeley as a turning point.
"I think we wanted to get back to Mamaroneck lacrosse. ... This is such a talented group. We love working with each other," she said.
Lividini noted Thursday's game will mark the fourth time Mamaroneck has been in a Section 1 girls lacrosse final.
Praising Suffern as having been "strong forever," she said, "I think it will be a good fight. We want to come out with our first section championship."
Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at both @HaggertyNancy and at @LoHudHockey.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Girls lacrosse: Mamaroneck beats No. 1 Fox Lane 10-8 in Class A semi
