In the course of a single week, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys lacrosse team went from a doomed side with little chance to make much noise to one that could drown out the rest of the field and still repeat as Section III Class A champions.
The Hornets’ restoration, which began May 5 with that overtime victory at West Genesee, continued back home last Tuesday night when Mac Fish’s goal in the last second of regulation produced a 12-11 victory over Cazenovia.
Owning an 11-game win streak and a no. 3 state ranking, Cazenovia could make a claim as the area’s best team, its resume including wins over West Genesee and Baldwinsville and its lone blemish an overtime defeat to Jamesville-DeWitt in early April.
Following a 24-hour weather postponement, the game got underway, and with a quick start, the Lakers led, 5-3, after one period, but it could not follow up on that early production, F-M chipping away until it had closed the gap to 8-7 at halftime.
Then both defenses settled in, especially that of the Hornets, who held Cazenovia to one goal in the third quarter and forged a 9-9 tie, setting up a dynamic finish.
They were still even, 10-10, when P.J. Brown put in his fourth goal of the game with one minute left, putting Cazenovia in front.
Unfazed by this, F-M tied its seconds later, won the ensuing face-off and then, with less than a second to play, saw Mac Fish rip a shot past Cazenovia goalie Anthony Rinaldo to win it.
Dylan Taylor-Wolford, who scored the OT game-winner at West Genesee, led F-M this time with three goals, the same amount that he had against the Wildcats. Eric Badger and Donovan Welsh joined Fish in scoring twice, and Hornets goalie Brian Charlamb had 10 saves.
Rinaldo, getting the start in place of Brenden Whalen, ended up with 12 saves. Cole Willard helped Brown with three goals and one assist, while Jake Stowell scored twice. Alex Hunt and Derek White had the other goals as Jake Lewis got two assists.
This surge had put F-M back at the .500 mark (8-8), waiting to see where it would get placed in the sectional Class A bracket.
