A chance at snaring the biggest victory in program history lay right in front of the Cicero-North Syracuse boys lacrosse team.
In front of home fans at Bragman Stadium last Saturday night, the Northstars, who have never won a Section III Class A title, had a chance to reach the finals at the Carrier Dome – if it could topple top seed West Genesee, owner of 15 state championships and 18 of the last 21 sectional crowns.
As if all of those things weren’t enough, C-NS had a chance to deny legendary Wildcats head coach Mike Messere his 800th career victory, something Bill Aldrich, the Northstars’ coach, particularly wanted since he went to West Genesee and played under Messere.
Nothing, though, was going to keep Messere from his milestone and the Wildcats from yet another sectional final, C-NS taking a 13-3 defeat as WG advanced to face Auburn in Wednesday’s title game at the Carrier Dome.
Sharp and precise from the outset, the Wildcats swarmed the C-NS net, and it soon was apparent that Northstars goalie Zach Sheridan would need a career performance to keep things close.
Sheridan did make 13 first-half saves (17 overall), but on several occasions the shots he blocked fell into the sticks of other WG players, who converted the rebounds.
Trailing 4-1 after one period, C-NS tried to make inroads, but after goals by Ray Scarlata, Brad Williams and Brian Rowe, it could not get a single goal in the game’s last 29-plus minutes, constantly stymied by WG’s fierce man-to-man defense, anchored by goalie Nick O’Neill, who had 10 saves.
Pulling away in the second half, the Wildcats mostly depended on the likes of Tyler Shoults, who had four goals, and David Procopio, who had three goals and one assist.
Just to get to this points, C-NS had to go on the road and knock off no. 5 seed and defending champion Fayetteville-Manlius in last Wednesday’s opening round to earn that opportunity, and got the sweetest kind of payback as, with a perfect start and strong finish, it eliminated the Hornets 14-6.
In many ways, this result was surprising. When the two sides had first met on April 21, F-M, despite all of its early struggles, had smashed C-NS 12-5, and in the last weeks of the regular season it had stunned both West Genesee and Cazenovia.
Combine the previous result with the big wins it had on the ledger, and F-M had every reason to feel confident – but it soon was apparent that the Northstars, at least on this evening, was just plain better than the Hornets.
Bent on payback, C-NS took charge in the first nine minutes, roaring out to a 5-0 lead with five goals from five different players – Williams, Scarlata, Nick Riccardi, Zach DeBottis and Brad Williams.
Forced into immediate catch-up mode, F-M couldn’t make up much ground the rest of the half, and C-NS led 7-3 at intermission. For a brief moment in the third quarter, the Hornets had to like its chances of catching up, having moved within three, 8-5.
One more goal may have caused serious concern on the C-NS side – but when DeBottis converted with 1:18 left in the third quarter, all the momentum went back to the Northstars, who proceeded to go on another 5-0 run that decided the outcome.
DeBottis finished with four goals, while Riccardi and Williams had three goals apiece. Waldron scored twice as O’Brien and Scarlata had the other goals.
No Hornets player scored more than once, with single goals going to Tyler Papa (who had two assists), Erik Badger, Donovan Welsh, Luke Hamel, Griffin Cicci and Dan Burnam. Otherwise, the C-NS defense turned everything back as Sheridan recorded eight saves.
