Diary Of A Lakeland Player: Alex Fitzpatrick

Senior Alex Fitzpatrick, who attends Lakeland and was named All-American last year in her junior season, is the Lakeland/Panas girls lacrosse record holder for most saves in a career. Fitzpatrick has made 666 saves in her career and 166 saves this season.

Fitzpatrick will be playing lacrosse at Lehigh University next year.

Before she does that, she and her teammates will be playing in the New York State Class A Final Four 9:30 a.m. Friday, June 11 at Tompkins County Community College. The Rebels (18-2) qualified for the final four after beating Guilderland Saturday in the state quarterfinals at SUNY-Albany.

We asked Fitzpatrick to share some of her thoughts with Patch:

For the second time in four years, the Lakeland Panas Rebels will advance to the New York State Final Four. Being the goalie for the Rebels these past four years has truly been amazing. I know that Saturday's game against Section 2 champion Guilderland was a game I will always remember.

It took two halves of regulation, two mandatory three-minute overtimes and two minutes into sudden death victory to pull off the 10-9 win. Senior Megan Bozek scored the winning goal, giving us a chance to compete in the state championship playoffs.

Bozek received a pass from her sophomore sister Emma Bozek, who knocked down a Guilderland pass and took off with ball. It was not just Megan and Emma who really helped our team reach the state semi-finals, it was our whole Lakeland/Panas lacrosse team.

Senior captain Casandra Honovich helped put our team on the scoreboard in the first half with two goals, helping us decrease Guilderland's lead by two. Our defense, led by senior captain Bridget McGovern and senior Jillian Caffrey, did a great job of stopping Guilderland from running up the scoreboard.

Also junior Melissa Hanson and sophomore Allie O'Mara did a fantastic job of keeping out Guilderland attackers.

In the second half, junior Anna Jeszeck had a goal while senior Kelsey Bub scored three goals bringing the game closer. Senior Kristen Pappalardo, Megan Bozek and Emma Bozek added a goal apiece in the second half of regulation.

Our defense did a great job of only allowing Guilderland to score four goals in the second half. Going into the two halves of overtime, Megan Bozek scored her second goal of the game, giving us a 9-8 lead. For the first half of overtime, our defense made crucial saves including my save after we scored.

Unfortunately, the Dutchmen were able to score in the second half of overtime, forcing us to enter sudden death. This is when the Bozek sisters stepped up and gave us the all-important goal to send us to the state final four. I ended the game with a total of eleven saves.

Looking forward to this weekend, we will definitely be viewed as the underdog. The teams we will be competing against all have experience in the state playoffs.

We have nothing to lose but only so much to gain from our game this Friday. If our team can play a consistent game like we did against Guilderland, our team will have a chance to compete in the state finals.