For the Cazenovia field hockey team to go to Fayetteville-Manlius and win a season-opening tournament on Aug. 28-29 was a nice development, though far from surprising. On the other hand, for the Lakers to follow that up by nearly reaching double digits at East Syracuse Minoa in last Tuesday night’s Onondaga High School League opener was quite an eye-opener. Cazenovia’s 9-0 rout over ESM provided a pair of surprises. The first one involved that it was such a lopsided match against a Spartans side that graduated just five seniors from a team which, in 2014, made it to the Section III Class B final before falling to Camden. The second surprise involved the fact that Zoe Shephard, who netted three goals and two assists in the F-M Tournament, did not even have to register a point, glad to cede the spotlight to a crowd of teammates who poured it on against ESM. A first-half assault led to a 4-0 lead, and though Spartans goalie Taylor Cassella stood up as best as she could, recording 11 saves, Cazenovia more than doubled that margin in the second half, and spread things around. Janie Kempf and Morgan Giordano each had two goals and one assist, with Bella Wheeler also scoring twice. Maria Stalder put up a goal and two assists as Delaney Yates and Mikaylee Whalen notched one goal apiece. Cazenovia returned home to Burton Street two days later to face Cortland, and managed to rip past the Purple Tigers by that very same 9-0 margin. Remarkably, Zoe Shephard had not scored a goal in the ESM rout, but made up for it here, netting a three-goal hat trick and adding an assist, helping the Lakers grab a 6-0 lead by halftime. Of course, Shephard was far from alone. Maria Stalder and Morgan Giordano each scored twice, with Bella Wheeler contributing one goal and one assist. Janie Kempf also had a goal, while Mikaylee Whalen and Bailey Forrett contributed single assists.