Passing the midway point of its regular-season schedule, the Skaneateles girls soccer team continued to careen between high and low moments.
The Lakers’ latest big test would come with Thursday’s visit to reigning six-time Section III Class A champion Jamesville-DeWitt, who held the no. 2 spot in the latest state Class A rankings.
That exalted status was far from a fluke, as J-D proved during a remarkable first half where it found the net six times, draining all the suspense out of the game as it beat Skaneateles 9-1.
No matter what it tried, the Lakers’ defense could not keep the Rams from converting in a barrage that eventually saw Alex Catanzarite produce three goals and two assists, with Alex Fontana adding two goals and one assist as Angela Bussone and Alex Epifani each got a goal and two assists.
About the only bright spot for Skaneateles was that, in the second half, Melissa Amory, off a feed from Mikaela Terhune, netted a goal to prevent the shutout.
Prior to this, Skaneateles visited Hannibal last Tuesday afternoon, the game turning into a personal showcase for Catie Woodruff, especially in the first half, as the Lakers beat the Warriors 5-3.
During those first 40 minutes, Hannibal’s Taylor Dence netted a pair of goals, but Woodruff doubled that total all by herself, a four-goal onslaught that personally made the difference.
Adding another tally in the second half, Woodruff finished with all five of the Skaneateles goals, two of them unassisted, with the others assisted by Tate Green, Shay McCarthy and Makie Kerr.
Dence would also get a hat trick to keep the Warriors within range, with Kassi Jones assisting on two of those scoring plays. Skaneateles goalie Mae McGlynn turned back everything else, earning 10 saves as her Hannibal counterpart, Megan Norris, managed 18 saves.
Now the Lakers faced a week where it would play four times in six days, starting with back-to-back games against Syracuse and Jordan-Elbridge before a Thursday visit to Auburn and Saturday’s non-league test against West Genesee.
