Despite being down six goals at halftime, junior Emma Tyrrell said she kept repeating to herself: “we couldn’t just give up.”
Scoring five goals in four minutes, Mount Sinai’s girls lacrosse team mounted a comeback that turned a 9-3 deficit into an eventual 12-12 tie, but a Cold Spring Harbor goal late in the second period of sudden-death overtime knocked the Mustangs out of the playoffs in the Long Island Class C championship game at Islip High School June 3.
Knowing it was now or never, Tyrrell made a highlight-reel play when she raced past the right side of the cage and scored a behind-the-back shot that started the string of goals. She said it was a play she’d been practicing putting into effect all season.
“I had no idea I was going to do it, until it just happened,” she said. “The funny thing is that just before the game started [coach Al Bertolone] told me that he finally trusts me to take that shot. So when the time came, I had the confidence.”
She scored twice in two minutes, which bookended a Camryn Harloff goal. Both of Tyrell’s scores started with sophomore Jenny Markey (one goal, four assists) winning possession off the draw.
“We were finally getting the momentum to get back at them and be the better team,” Markey said. “I was nervous on the draw, but ready. I knew what the girl guarding me was looking to do, but once I started getting the hang of it I got more comfortable as the game went on.”
She earned more possession time on the next two faceoffs, which led to her scoring a free position goal and passing to Harloff (three goals, one assist) for a good goal on her second to pull Mount Sinai within one, 9-8, with 16:11 left in regulation.
Markey said seeing Tyrrell’s goal fueled her team’s fire.
“It got everyone going,” she said. “After that goal, the whole feeling changed.”
For a team that usually doesn’t celebrate after scoring, the girls lit up, shouting and jumping toward one another. Senior Meaghan Tyrrell (five goals, one assist), Emma’s older sister, said her heart skipped a beat with each goal scored. Fittingly, the team’s top offensive threat tallied the first two and final three goals of the game. She scooped up a ground ball in the eight-minute mark and forced a turnover with a stick check at the six-minute mark. Both moves led to her last two game-tying goals in what became a back-and-forth battle.
“Knowing how important each goal was to determine the rest of our season made us more excited,” she said. “With every one that went in that celebration had to be done at a more extreme level. Our team’s resiliency is unlike any other team I’ve ever seen before. Seeing our team perform how it did to get back into the game was astounding, and I’m so proud to be associated with that kind of team.”
Losing seven seniors to graduation, Emma Tyrell said the remaining players will use the loss as motivation to make the push next year.
“As sad as it is moving on from this season, I’m excited to start preparing,” she said. “Since the beginning our team has been all about hard work and grit — that was definitely shown in the second half of the game. We never have, and we never will give up.”
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