MIchaela Bruno, Kerry Defliese help Garden City reach state girls lacrosse final

CORTLAND, N.Y. — Amid a back-and-forth girls lacrosse game that was tied four times in a hectic six-minute span, Garden City found space to take a breath, but the Trojans couldn’t exhale deeply until they were able to stave off a late rally.

Michaela Bruno scored consecutive goals to put her team up by four early in the second half and Garden City’s defense regrouped after allowing three late goals in a 15-11 victory over Victor in the state Class B semifinals Friday at SUNY Cortland.

Bruno and Kerry Defliese each had three goals and an assist and Brooke McDaid added a goal and four assists. Garden City (20-1) will face Yorktown in the final at noon Saturday.

“The back-and-forth is obviously very stressful, but we’ve done that with a couple teams over the season,” Bruno said. “We knew that as long as we pulled it out in the second half, we would come out with the win and we always do when we play as a team and play strong. I think it’s amazing what we can do here.”

Garden City scored three goals in less than two minutes to take a 14-8 lead nine minutes into the second half behind Defliese, Katie Muldoon and Celia Concannon.

Victor (12-9) answered with three straight goals by Emily Hawryschuk, but the Trojans stepped up defensively to seal the win.

Garden City took a 1-0 lead when Muldoon cut right and converted a quick feed for a goal inside 10 yards just 40 seconds into the game, but Victor scored a minute later and had a few quality chances on a three-minute possession.

SEE PHOTOSState Class B semifinal: Garden City-Victor

Victor scored three in a row to take a 4-3 lead with about 11 minutes left in the first half and both teams steadily traded goals until Jackie Brattan broke a tie at 6 off a feed from McDaid with 2:51 left before halftime.

“The girls just never gave up, they kept chipping away,” Garden City coach Diane Chapman said. “They knew they were able to score on this team and knew they could stop them. It was just a matter of putting together longer spurts.”

McDaid, who often created space and hit teammates for quick goals, added that being unselfish with the ball was a key. Garden City had seven different goal-scorers.

“We all played as a team,” McDaid said. “It means everything to everyone.”