All was going well for the Skaneateles boys lacrosse team.
In last Tuesday night’s visit to Marcellus, the Lakers, thanks to a big third-quarter push, had the rival Mustangs in a familiar position – trailing with one quarter left, and with little reason to think that it could keep Skaneateles contained long enough to make a sustained comeback.
Yet that’s exactly what happened. In a 12-minute stretch that had the potential to turn two seasons around, the once-potent Lakers were shut out, while the Mustangs rose up, caught up and went on to shock Skaneateles 14-13.
Having gained an impressive 10-4 win at Fayetteville-Manlius on April 9, Skaneateles may have gone into Marcellus too confident. If so, that dissipated during a closely fought first half where the Mustangs inched out in front and withstood plenty of charges, leaving the Lakers trailing by one, 7-6, at the break.
A strange second half followed. With the line of Jack VanSlyke, Reggie Buell and Sam Duggan impossible to contain, Skaneateles outscored Marcellus 7-2 in the third quarter, roaring out to a 13-9 lead. One more push would lead to another routine win over a Mustangs side it has mostly handled in recent years.
Just at the wrong moment, though, Skaneateles went cold. Every time it tried to get something, Marcellus goalie Dan Cusick turned them away, accumulating his total to 21 saves, and his stops sparked the Mustangs on the other end, too, as it rocked the Lakers for five unanswered goals.
Matt Hutchings, with six goals and one assist, and Ross Filtch, with four goals and two assists, led the comeback. They negated what Buell (five goals, one assist), Duggan (four goals, two assists) and VanSlyke (two goals, four assists) put together as Matt Goetzmann also scored twice and Reece Eddy added two assists. Kyle Oschner finished with nine saves.
The Lakers had little time to grasp what had happened at Marcellus. Instead, it found itself back home Thursday night to confront another long-time rival, LaFayette, and the scenario nearly repeated itself – which may have benefited Skaneateles, who went on to top the Lancers 12-6.
Feeling most responsible for the Marcellus defeat, the Lakers’ defense answered with a first-quarter shutout of LaFayette, establishing a lead that the Lakers weren’t going to give away, Kyle Oschner stopping 10 of the 16 shots he faced.
Skaneateles kept adding to its margin, eventually gaining an 11-4 lead with one quarter left that the Lancers weren’t going to erase. Buell, with three goals and three assists, and Duggan, with three goals and two assists, led the way as VanSlyke, Goetzmann and John Danforth each scored twice. Eddy contributed an assist.
This busy week ended with Skaneateles hosting South Jefferson on a sunny Saturday afternoon and handling the Spartans 14-6, improving to 4-2 in advance of a tough game Thursday at Westhill before the Lakers return home Saturday afternoon to face Section II foe Bethlehem.
