BOXSCORE
The College at Brockport's women's lacrosse team hung tough with nationally-ranked Cortland during Saturday afternoon's State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) championship game.
After falling behind 3-0, the Golden Eagles scored two straight goals to pull within one, before Cortland ended the first half on a 6-0 run to take a 9-2 halftime lead.
Brockport came out fired up in the second half and pulled within 9-5 after scoring the first three goals of the half, but the Red Dragons (18-1) responded with four straight goals and held on for a 14-6 win over the Golden Eagles (10-6).
It was the 16th consecutive win and 13th consecutive SUNYAC championship for the Red Dragons, who clinched an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament.
Junior
Carly Motondo (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee) scored two goals with an assist while juniors
Karen Bianchi (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee) and
Dayna Piraino (Syracuse, NY/Henninger), sophomore
Sarah Brown (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee) and freshman
Alyssa Scordo (Watertown, NY/South Jefferson) each scored for the Green and Gold.
This was the fifth time Brockport and Cortland have squared off in the championship, having previously met in the 2010, 2008, 2007 and 1997 title games.
Cortland started fast, scoring three times over the first five minutes and 23 seconds of the title game. Scordo got Brockport on the board with 20:21 remaining in the half, after Bianchi made a nice feed to set up Scordo's 23rd goal of the year. It was the 15th straight game that Scordo has scored.
More than three minutes later, Piraino made it a one-goal game on her 23rd goal of 2011. Motondo set up Piraino with 17:03 left in the half as Brockport trailed only 3-2.
But then the Red Dragons got on a roll, scoring six times during an eight-minute stretch to take a 9-2 halftime lead.
Brown notched her team-leading 34th goal off a feed from Piraino 3:39 into the second half, and Bianchi added an unassisted goal to make it 9-4 with 22:38 left to play.
Motondo capped the three-goal spurt by scoring off a feed from Piraino, with 21:59 remaining. But Cortland's suffocating defense held the Golden Eagles scoreless over the next 8:58 until Motondo broke through for her 18th goal of the year with 13:01 remaining.
Piraino now ranks sixth all-time in scoring at Brockport with 165 points (86 goals and 79 assists).
Cortland came into the title game averaging 18 goals a game, but Brockport limited the Red Dragons to their lowest scoring output since a 13-8 win over Buffalo State on April 9.
Senior
Jamie Kaminsky (Oakdale, NY/Sayville) capped her Brockport career by stopping six shots. She has started all 64 games for the Green and Gold during her four-year career, and is Brockport's winningest goalie with a 41-23 career record. Kaminsky has made 549 saves in over 3,720 minutes in goal.
Cortland's Mary Hartzheim scored a game-high four goals to earn Tournament MVP honors. The rest of the All-Tournament team consisted of: Bianchi, Brockport sophomore
Kaila Maguire (Potsdam, NY/Potsdam) and senior
Amanda Massmann (Bohemia, NY/Connetquot); Cortland's Erin Kollar, Jordan Miller, Ashley Cook and Melissa Kane; Buffalo State's Jamie Handley and Mariah DeBolt; and Geneseo's Rachel Petrone and Emily Haggerty.
The Golden Eagles advanced into the school's fourth SUNYAC championship in the last five years.
