For the third time on an April Saturday, the Jamesville-DeWitt boys lacrosse team suffered a close defeat to a high-ranking opponent.
This time, the opponent was Fairport, undefeated and no. 2 in the state Class A rankings. In a game played at Hobart College, the Red Rams squandered a five-goal lead in the second half and watched the Red Raiders roar back to prevail by an 11-10 margin.
J-D, having gained so much confidence from a 13-11 win over West Genesee on April 21, managed to play better in the first half of this game. It held Fairport to a single goal in the opening period, and then saw its offense take off in the second quarter with six goals.
At one point late in the second quarter, J-D led 8-2, and it was still 8-3 at the break. Somehow, Fairport absorbed all this and, in the third quarter, completely took over, winning face-offs and controlling possession on the way to five unanswered goals that tied it, 8-8.
From there, it went back and forth in the final period, neither side getting away as J-D broke a scoring drought that lasted more than 16 minutes.
But with 13 seconds left in regulation and the game still tied 10-10, Fairport’s Jay Vakiener worked his way to the net and, unassisted, flung a shot past Joe Shapiro (who finished with 11 saves) for the decisive goal.
In defeat, J-D’s Griffin Feiner scored three times, just as he did against West Genesee, while McLaren Brady would gain two goals and three assists.
Jordan Evans also found the net twice as Deke Burns, Mike Egstrom and Lucas Johnson earned the other goals. Vakiener, Pat VanBortle and Brian Martin each had three goals to lead Fairport’s comeback.
In between the West Genesee and Fairport claches, J-D went to New Hartford last Tuesday and ripped past the Spartans 17-3.
Already with a comfortable 4-1 lead, the Rams erased any doubts by erupting for nine unanswered goals in the second quarter to make it 13-1 at the break.
As before, J-D was quite balanced. Brady had three goals as five others –Burns, Evans, Johnson, Mike Perkins and Justin Diamond– put in two goals apiece. Burns added two assists, the same as Colin Stone, with Jeff Edwards and Brendon Flanagan joining Stone with single tallies.
On the girls side, J-D, recovering from an April 14 loss to Fulton, got another push from New Hartford last Tuesday, but did enough to emerge with a 17-12 victory over the Spartans.
All game long, the pace was quick, and New Hartford, led by Theano Alvanos (four goals) and Ashley Chanatry (three goals, one assist), continued to make the Red Rams work.
J-D got through mostly through a trio of offensive threats. Taylor Fallon and Lauren Beville each finished with five goals, while Taylor Bierwagen backed up her four goals with four assists. Katherine Coughlin and Caroline Kopp added single goals, with Olivia Jasinski joining Coughlin in the assist column. Cameron Buck, in goal, recorded 10 saves.
This led to Saturday’s game at Mexico, where the Red Rams saw the much-improved Tigers get a late lead and hang on to beat J-D 10-9.
Through a 6-6 first half, both sides surged. And it remained that close deep into the second half, Mexico not moving ahead for good until Joelle Lombardoni’s goal with 8:38 left.
J-D could not force overtime, despite seeing Bierwagen notch four goals and Fallon add three goals and an assist. Kopp and Kayleigh Cavanaugh had the other goals, with Carly Stone and Sonia Narsipur adding assists.
Lombardoni (four goals, one assist), Kali Domicolo (three goals) and Taylor Bentley (two goals, three assists) accounted for most of the Tigers’ production.
Each of the Red Rams’ lacrosse teams meet up with Chittenango and Fulton in the opening days of May.
