After falling behind by a goal for the first time all season early in the second half Saturday, it would have been easy for them to feel like the chance was once again slipping away.

“I told them, ‘If you want things to be different at the end of this game, you have to fight,'” York coach Barb Marois said. “And they did.”

Devon Datsis and Kayla Kelly rattled the back of the cage five minutes apart in the middle part of the second half and keeper Olivia Golini made that lead stand up, leading the Wildcats to a 2-1 win over Gardiner at Thomas College on Saturday.

“Our corner execution was a little off and on today,” Marois said. “We just had to get it on goal and make the goalie play it. from there, you just try to capitalize on the rebounds.”

Datsis did that with 19:59 to play in regulation to offset an earlier goal from Gardiner’s Hailee Lovely to even the game at 1-1.

Datsis had the primary assist on Kelly’s winner at the 15-minute mark, firing the ball on the cage and forcing a rebound, which Kelly batted through the Gardiner keeper’s pads.

The rally negated a solid effort from the Tigers, whose goal at 28:26 of the second half put York behind in a game for the first time all season.

“That was a big goal for us,” Gardiner coach Sharon Gallant said. “I’ve watched them on film a little bit, and had thought we picked up a couple places where they might be weak, and tried to work a couple of corners around that. the first one worked beautifully, we executed it perfectly.

“I’d heard so much about them, about how fabulous they were, and when we came off in the first half, my kids were like, ‘I think we can match them,'” Gallant added. “I told them, ‘Yes we can.’ We weren’t expected to be here this year, so for us, when we got on the bus (Saturday) morning, we said, this is all frosting. I think my kids handled it really well.”

York’s biggest weapon through the middle of the field is sophomore Lilian Posternak, an elite player who suits up for the United States’ Under-17 squad.

“We’re very fortunate to have her there,” Marois said.

Posternak was quiet on the scoreboard Saturday, but her ability to control things in the middle of the field helped the Wildcats set things up across the field.

“That’s been the difference for us this year compared to last year,” Marois said. “It’s not that we have a lot of different players, but the girls who were here last year stepped it up, and we really had more people around (Posternak) as a supporting cast this year.”

“The center hurt us a little bit there,” Gallant said. “We tried to double up on a couple places, to see if we could take that away. There was a call I thought was going to be obstruction that we didn’t get all day, so I probably should have given up on that in the first half. But they’re very strong down the middle. We did what we could.”

Looking ahead, the rest of Class B won’t be getting a break from the Wildcats any time soon.

Posternak will be only a junior next season, and the team graduates only five.

“We have a good core group coming back, and hopefully some of the kids who were on the bench watching today see what it’s all about,” Marois said.

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