Marcellus Boys Lacrosse Gives It All in Class D State Quarterfinal: “We Left It All on the Field”

Syracuse, N.Y. — The Marcellus boys lacrosse team was shoved into its next rebuilding era on Saturday afternoon.

A rugged Penn Yan foe pushed around a normally potent Mustangs attack and dug up just enough key goals of its own to pocket a 13-8 win in a Class D state quarterfinal game.

The loss stops Marcellus (14-5) two rounds shy of the title game, where it had lost each of the past two seasons. Six seniors, so integral to a run of success that earned the team three straight sectional titles, abruptly hung up their Mustangs jerseys after the game.

Appreciation for their contributions, more than any Xs and Os shortcomings, was the focus of coach Collin Donahue’s postgame locker room remarks.

“I just told them I was proud of them. Obviously, we can’t let one game define our season,” he said. “Penn Yan played a good game today, and things didn’t go our way, and it’s just the way that sports are sometimes. We ran into a good team and we didn’t play our best today.

Penn Yan (17-2), ranked No. 5 in the state, was led by four goals and three assists from Teagan Fingar and three goals each from Braden Fingar and Michael Jellotte.

Chris Doshna II scored three times for No. 7 Marcellus and Nick Rayfield and Henry Lawrence tossed in a pair apiece.

Penn Yan raced out of the starting gate, forcing the Mustangs to play catch up with a 4-2 lead after one and a 5-2 edge early in the second.

“At the start of the game, our message was to go out and play as hard as we could. And I think it wasn’t an effort issue today,” Rayfield said. “It was just that things didn’t go our way. The balls didn’t go our way. I think we played our hearts out. And they’re a great team. All props to them.”

Penn Yan had one of the most physical defenses Marcellus has faced all season, forcing it to pay a toll of pain for every scoring chance it got.

But slowly Marcellus crept back, with a pair of scores from Doshna bringing Marcellus within 5-4 at intermission.

“Yeah, they’re definitely physical, but I think, I think we can be physical too,” Doshna said. “And I think we played physically on offense and got past that physicality that they brought and played well against it. We just got the looks we wanted.”

The difference turned out to be Penn Yan’s resilience. Teagan Fingar buried three straight goals to open the third quarter and pad his team’s edge to 8-4.

And after a Mustangs’ mini-run cut the deficit to 9-6 after three, Jellotte, Miles Ditzel and Braden Fingar scored consecutively to double Penn Yan’s lead.

“They got a couple in a row, possession time,” Donahue said. “I thought we had some good opportunities that kind of went the other way. And then they scored one and it kind of took a little bit of the air.”

Donahue will have a good foundation next season to make the Mustangs a viable state contender again. Doshna and Rayfield are both juniors, while Lawrence will be a sophomore.

“I think we have the same standard and same goal next season coming back. I know everyone on this team coming back wants to get right back here, right back in that state championship position,” Rayfield said. “This year we worked so hard and I think we’re going to bring that energy with us next year and just work hard at practice and do everything we can to get back here.”

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