On May 17th, both the FM girls’ and boys’ varsity lacrosse teams played their last regular season matches against West Genesee. The girls’ home match ended with a score of 9-8 for the visiting opponents, making their final regular season record turn out being 7-9. On the boys’ away end, the match ended 12-10 for the home team, setting a record of 11-5 for the FM regular season record. 

With a three point deficit at the end of the first quarter and four points in the second quarter, the boys faced a tough matchup against West Genesee. In the second half of the game, scoring three goals in the third quarter, the score deficit was back to three with a now 10-7 score. Sadly, by the end of the fourth quarter, the team came up short of two points and the game ended 12-10. Still, their record was far from ruined as the season ended 11-5, making FM still hold the first seed position for class A in section III. In addition, the match had a pretty even goal spread, with junior Jack Hearn being the leading scorer with three scored goals, followed by junior Colin Clark, sophomore Henry Dougherty and freshman Tommy Porter, each having two goals. Senior player Kieran Egan also scored one goal, and sophomore goalie Conor Reynolds had seven saves, setting a 36.8% save percentage for him in the match.

While the boys played at West Genesee, the girls varsity team faced them at home for a senior night game. To start things off, before the match started, all of the senior players on both the home and away teams were called to the field to be recognized for their efforts, with the FM players walking with their families to meet the coaches in the middle of the field. Once the match started, the game proved to be very tough, with both teams playing well and evenly facing each other. But by the end of all four quarters, the FM team came up short by a single point, tying the girls regular season record as 7-9, giving them the third seed position for class B in section III. Seniors Julianna Cogliandro and Kate McNany each had three scored goals, showing how much effort they put into their senior night. Sophomores Addison Keyes and Taylor Novack also played very well, with Addison scoring the two remaining goals and Taylor having five assists. As usual, junior Miceala Jennings showed how good of a goalie she is by making twelve saves against West Genesee, having a 57.1% save percentage.

Although both FM varsity teams ended up losing their last regular season match, they were only two and one point games. Now, FM is preparing for sectionals, with the players very excited and the coaches having some high expectations. Coach Madden, head coach of the boys varsity lacrosse team, has a very positive, yet realistic, attitude towards the upcoming matchups. “I believe if we play to the best of our ability we can win. We have goalie covered, good defense, good offensive guys, we feel like we’re the deepest team in the section, so we expect to win it. Like any game, if the guys don’t play well, they won’t win it. But if they do, they definitely can. We’re healthy, young, and if we win sectionals, we can be in the championship game, so the boys are very excited since they have the chance of winning a New York state championship, which no FM team has ever done before.” If that does indeed happen, it would be a historic moment for the Hornets. 

On the girls side, Coach Tuck said: “Expectations for sectionals are that we continue to play our best lacrosse, we need to work hard so that we can execute with a win in tight games. We know we play tough teams down the line, so we’ll just get to work and hope we can beat them.” Even if the girls don’t have the same shots as the boys this year, they are not any less excited and as the head coach said, will play their very best in their matches.”