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By TIM IRVING
“I don’t care what it takes, Finals or not, this is my finals.”
Rush-Henrietta junior Lena Cox got her team to the Class A girls lacrosse Finals with her fifth goal with seven seconds remaining in the first overtime, 9-8 at Webster Schroeder on Wednesday night.
It was two different games, for the first quarter of the game, the Royal Comets dominated with Cox scoring twice.
And classmate and North Carolina commit Avery Roberts getting two in building a 4-0 lead.
The Patriots cut the lead in half before halftime, 6-3, backed by Vanderbilt-bound senior goalie Molly Joyce.
“We watched their last couple of games and they’re playing great lacrosse. Their goalie played great and they did a great job on the draws,” Royal Comets coach Jim DeWald said.
Penfield had all the momentum coming off the sidelines at halftime. Sydney Nakas cut the lead to 6-5 with 16 minutes left.
A minute later, Peyton Rothfuss fed Elisa Faklaris to tie it and then Faklaris scored from the 8-meter and the Loyola of Maryland signee gave the Patriots their first lead.
Cox scored her fourth to tie the game at 7-7.
With four minutes to play, Penfield found themselves a woman-down and Roberts completed her hat trick to end the five-goal run and put R-H back on top.
With 1:22 left, Nakas fired home the equalizer and that tied it at 8.
Rush-Henrietta won the draw but the Patriots made a stop. Aleah Petre weaved her way through the midfield and drew a card with three seconds left in regulation.
On the woman-up to start overtime, Faklaris earned an 8m opportunity but Angelia Oeschele kicked it away.
“I told them we needed to do what we do, stay composed, we’ve played man-down before, just get through these two minutes and let the offense take care of things,” DeWald said, adding about his sophomore goalie, “she’s our rock, she doesn’t get phased, she does her job really well.”
Rush-Henrietta pushed the ball up field and Cox ran from right to left across the front of the goal and earned an 8m chance with 11 seconds to go, with Joyce having allowed only two goals since halftime.
“I was really thinking I’m going to shoot it low, but I didn’t shoot it low, I went up as hard as I could,” Cox said.
Her fifth goal sends Rush-Henrietta (14-3) to the finals May 31st at East Rochester.
“When we get on the field, we don’t have a doubt in our minds whether we can do it or not…we’re gonna do it, “ Cox said.
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