Mike Felice sensed the trouble that his Liverpool boys lacrosse team was in, all due to the work of his alma mater from Baldwinsville.
So the Warriors’ head coach called a time-out early in the second half of Tuesday night’s game at LHS Stadium – and settled down, the hosts proceeded to make a decisive move to help beat the Bees 12-6.
At 8-0, Liverpool was the lone remaining unbeaten Section III Class A team after West Genesee’s 13-11 loss to Jamesville-DeWitt on Saturday. It also had cracked the state top 10, moving into the no. 9 spot.
None of this meant much to B’ville, who sported a 3-2 record entering the latest chapter of this fierce local rivalry, made more intense by the connections of Felice, who went to one school, but now coached the other.
B’ville struck first with Ben Paprocki’s goal 59 seconds into the game. Within two minutes, though, the Warriors had a 2-1 lead thanks to tallies from Matt Glowacki and Austin Hope, and the margin grew to 4-1 by the end of the period on goals by Nick Kline and Scott Kershner.
An uneven second quarter, marked by physical play and penalties on both ends, saw Liverpool unable to pull away, but the Bees unable to catch up either, which left the Warriors protecting a 5-2 edge going to the break.
Just 1:09 into the third period, Glowacki’s second goal made it 6-2, but the Bees didn’t flinch. Instead, it started to dominate face-offs, which led to Austin McAskill and Pat Colligan scoring in a 34-second span, cutting the margin in half.
Then Nate Rutkowski converted, making it three goals in 1:50, and the Warriors’ lead was down to a single goal, 6-5, forcing Felice to use that time-out to settle his players down.
It worked, as Liverpool’s defense, anchored by Bryan Capone, Mike Czachowski and Kyle Spencer, blanked the Bees over the next 13-plus minutes and only allowed one more goal the entire night. Dominick Madonna also made a series of big stops, starting with a point-blank save on Sean Stewart’s possible tying shot.
Late in the period, Logan Thomas scored on a solo run from the right side, igniting a 4-0 run the rest of the period, which included key goals by Glowacki and Anthony Eno. Suddenly, it was 10-5, and Kline added a goal and assist in the fourth quarter to put it away.
