Last second Golden Eagles goal grabs last women's lacrosse SUNYAC spot

With two seconds left in the game, junior midfielder Kaila Maguire found the back of the net to lift Brockport over Oneonta 15-14 Saturday, April 28. The win earned Brockport the No. 4 seed in the SUNYAC tournament.

“I luckily came up with the draw,” Maguire said. “Emily (Zartman) knocked the ball free and I had the mindset to get down the field fast enough to get a shot on net.”

With both teams fighting for a playoff spot, emotions were at an all-time high. Brockport opened up the game with a three-goal run

Less than a minute into the game, senior attacker Karen Bianchi put the Eagles on the board off of an assist by freshman attacker Nina Tassone. Maguire scored on a free position shot minutes later and junior attacker Sarah Brown extended the lead to 3-0 at the 25-minute mark.

After Oneonta bounced back with two goals of its own, Brown scored again on a free position shot. Oneonta continued to answer Brockport, but it never managed to gain a lead. The Red Dragons cut the lead down to one again at the 21-minute mark, but senior attacker Dayna Piraino put Brockport back up two minutes later.

Oneonta won the draw following Piraino’s goal, leading to a free position goal by Rebecca Monteith. At the 15-minute mark, Monteith delivered again for the Red Dragons, tying the game at 5-5.

With the game tied, Brockport put together a three-goal run. Junior attacker Emily Zartman scored back-to-back goals for the Eagles and Piraino found Bianchi, who put one past the goalkeeper to give Brockport an 8-5 lead.

Oneonta scored at the 5-minute mark to make the game 8-6, but Brockport wasn’t done scoring. With less than 15 seconds left in the first half, Zartman scored her third goal of the game to give the Eagles a 9-6 advantage going into halftime.

The Eagles began the second half with two unanswered goals. Tassone scored on a free position shot two minutes in and Brown put Brockport up 11-6 at the 26-minute mark. In the following six minutes, Brockport scored once and Oneonta scored twice to put the score at 12-8.

After the Red Dragons scored two goals, Maguire scored at the 15-minute mark off of an assist by Piraino. With the score 13-10, Oneonta fired back with two more goals.

Maguire netted another goal with less than two minutes remaining to give Brockport a 14-12 lead, but the game was far from over. Oneonta cut the lead to one with slightly more than one minute left and tied the game at 14-14 with 13 seconds to go.

Just as the game looked bound for overtime, Maguire stepped up again for the Eagles. After winning the draw, Maguire raced down the field and put one past the goalkeeper with two seconds left. The last-second goal solidified a playoff spot for Brockport.

“It was one of the craziest finishes I’ve seen in my career,” Head Coach Steve Wagner said. “We didn’t get nervous when they came back like we did against Buffalo State last Wednesday. I had no doubt we were going to win this game.”

The Oneonta game was a must-win for Brockport following its loss to Buffalo State Wednesday, April 25.    

Buffalo State used a late five-goal run to steal the win from Brockport.    

Brockport opened up the game against Buffalo State with five unanswered goals. Brown forced a turnover that led to the Eagles first goal at the 26-minute mark by Maguire. At the 19-minute mark, Zartman extended the lead when she connected on her 38th goal of the season. After Maguire scored back-to-back goals, sophomore midfielder Alyssa Scordo found the net to give the Eagles an early 5-0 lead.

Buffalo State matched Brockport’s run with five goals of its own to tie the game with three minutes remaining in the first half. Sophomore attacker Becca Martinez and junior attacker Ashley Caporizzo each scored two goals in the fun.

With two minutes remaining in the half, freshman goalie Hannah O’ Connor saved a shot, then successfully cleared the ball up field. Zartman did the rest, scoring her second goal of the game with 48 seconds left in the half to give Brockport a 6-5 lead going into halftime.