Without question, this would be the most difficult week of the Cazenovia girls soccer team’s regular season — four games in six days, including match-ups against all the leaders of the OHSL Liberty division. It began last Monday at the Fenner Street complex, where Cazenovia needed overtime to scratch out a 1-0 victory over the Skaneateles Lakers. Through 80 minutes of regulation, neither side could gain an advantage. There wasn’t a lack of opportunity, though, as Cazenovia goalie Jamie Enders had to make 10 saves, while her Skaneateles counterpart, Erica Tardiff, had 11 saves. So they remained scoreless until the five-minute mark of the OT period. As darkness neared, Kristina Kleine passed to her sister, Katie, who nailed an 18-yard shot past Tardiff that proved to be the game-winner. After such a tough battle, the Lakers had to make the most difficult road trip possible — all the way out to Marcellus to meet a Mustang team determined to avenge its only defeat of the season to the Lakers, 1-0, back on Sept. 9. The rematch proved just as exciting — only this time Cazenovia lost by a 1-0 margin.
Each side got a heavy wind at its back for half the game, and used that advantage to dominate the flow of play. Cazenovia got a majority of its 14 shots during this period, but all of them seemed to go to Marcellus goalie Megan Tock, who had 11 saves. So it remained 0-0 deep into the second half, but just when it looked like it would go to overtime, the Mustangs pulled off yet another late decisive goal. With 4:31 left in regulation, Chelsea Tarolli took a well-timed pass from Kathryn Busa up the middle and beat Enders to the right for the lone goal of the night. Given little time to recover, the Lakers are home Friday to meet the league’s other main power, Westhill, a team it lost to 4-1 on Sept. 17 when Kelly Ristoff pulled off a three-goal hat trick in a span of less than three minutes. Less than 24 hours later, the Lakers are in Jordan-Elbridge, making up a game postponed Sept. 29 because J-E’s field was too inundated with rain to play on.