Garden City storms back in girls lacrosse state semifinal
Michaela Molgano of the Garden City Trojans scored five goals in the Class B state semifinals against Nyack at SUNY Cortland on June 12, 2026. Credit: Todd F. Michalek
CORTLAND -- The Garden City girls lacrosse team’s journey isn’t over quite yet.
The Trojans overcame an early five-goal deficit to beat Nyack (Section I) in the state semifinals, 18-14, on Friday at SUNY Cortland. Michaela Molgano led the team with five goals and two assists.
Molgano said after her team got off to a slow start and trailed, 5-0, in the first quarter, that it was a conscious decision to focus up.
“It’s daunting to look at a deficit that big and to look at the game as a whole,” Molgano said. “At that point, we just had to take it step by step, play by play. And that’s exactly what we did. We kept building off each other’s success.”
Garden City (19-2) will next face Victor (Section V) in the championship at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. It’s a rematch of last year’s championship game, won by Victor, 12-9.
Though the Trojans’ offense turned it on, it was the defensive unit that kept them in the game. Stella Goettelmann has been a midfielder all season but transitioned to defense for the playoffs when one of her teammates got hurt.
Goettelmann quickly took to her new role, grabbing six draw controls and scooping up a ground ball in Friday's semifinal.
“The defense got fired up, we got pumped when we looked at that gap,” Goettelmann said. “We knew we had to do better and it motivated us to do better and push the ball. I love being on defense and being able to run up the ball and hopefully create some offense.”
Nyack (16-5) led 6-3 at the end of the first quarter before Garden City went on a 4-1 run to tie the score at 7 at halftime. The teams went point for point in the third, closing in a tie at 13. It was a 5-1 fourth quarter that sealed the deal for the Trojans.
Kimberly Colucci scored four goals while Ashley Clark and Grace Brantuk added three apiece for Garden City. Averie Smith had two goals and two assists.
Though the win was exciting, it was long and difficult, clocking in at nearly three hours in 87-degree weather. To prepare for the biggest game of the season, coach Dave Ettinger said the next step is R&R.
“We’ll try to get them off their feet,” Ettinger said. “It’s a really tough challenge to play two incredible teams like this, back to back. It’s not an easy situation, but we've been up here before and we know how to handle it. We just need to rest, rehydrate and hope we can do it again.”
Tess Ferguson is a reporter on Newsday's high school sports staff. She joined the team after graduating with a journalism degree from Ithaca College in 2025.
