Pierson/B'hampton suffers OT field hockey loss

SYRACUSE - As they ambled slowly off the field, there were the visible emotions to be expected following a crushing overtime loss in a state championship game. But when the Pierson/Bridgehampton field hockey players lined up, single file, to receive their medals, the eyes had dried and their smiles made clear one thing: There's no shame in silver.

"Coach said it right at the start of the year, that we're going to states, but we couldn't believe it," Lindsay Warne said. "After two years of losing in the county final? States? To have even played in this game, that says it was an amazing season."

Indeed it was, though it ended a victory short.

Jillian Vogl scored at the five-minute mark of overtime to lift Cazenovia over the Whalers, 1-0, in the state Class C field hockey final at Cicero-North Syracuse Saturday.

Vogl, who'd scored twice in Cazenovia's semifinal, took a corner insert from the left of the cage, lost the ball as she drove across, regained it on the right side, and tapped it into the near corner.

"I was angry at myself," goalie Catherine Musnicki said, recalling her initial thought. "Maybe if I did something different or tried harder . . . "

Ignore for a moment the words of a fierce competitor. The junior did more than her part, making a career-high 26 saves to earn all-tournament honors and a spirited, genuine round of applause from the opponents. One upstate coordinator remarked that Musnicki's performance was the most impressive of the tournament.

Really, Cazenovia (21-2) dominated everywhere but on the scoreboard. They had 33 shots on goal to Pierson's four; 17 penalty corners to the Whalers' six, and the Lakers controlled the ball as if they owned it.

"It was disturbing," Warne, a senior captain said. "The fact that we held in there that long . . . " She stopped. But clearly, it speaks to the whale of a game played by the defense and first-year goalkeeper.

Nine minutes into the contest, Musnicki made a crouching shin-guard save on a penalty stroke (often an automatic score in field hockey). Two minutes later, a sliding kick save on what appeared to be a sure goal toward the right corner. In the final minute of regulation, a lunging stab of a ball hit so hard, it knocked her glove off.

"The whole time I was thinking, 'Whatever it takes, they can't score,' " the converted midfielder said.

And twice in the first three minutes of overtime, Vogl had breakaways, only to be chased down and turned away by defender Nina Hemby.

"I think this [run] makes a huge statement," Hemby, a senior, said. The Whalers (13-8) hadn't reached states since 2002 and last made the final in 1999, as a Class D program. "We're two small schools and we're underdogs," she continued, "but they know about us now upstate."

They should. And some of that can be attributed to the Pierson/Bridgehampton fans - 14 of whom were bare-chested in the Syracuse chill - who easily overwhelmed the voices of others with their cheers and chants.

"The show of support from the community," coach Shannon Judge, a Centereach native, said, "I've never experienced anything like it . . . What this team did, it's more than I ever could've asked. We're going home to a parade and they deserve it."

And that 360-mile ride to Sag Harbor? "We were happy coming up," Judge said, "and we'll be happy going down.