Regardless of the opponent, the West Genesee girls lacrosse team brings the same kind of effort, and proceeds to overwhelm whatever is in the way.
And that stays true, even when an out-of-town power arrives in Camillus with the intention of slowing down the Wildcats’ machine.
Brighton, the state’s top ranked team in Class B from the Section V ranks, offered that challenge on Saturday afternoon, and controlled the tempo in many parts of the game. Still, when it was done, WG had earned a 9-2 victory over the Barons.
By being physical and disciplined at the same time, Brighton aimed to frustrate WG. All it did, though, was slow itself in the process, something the Wildcats exploited and turned into points.
The Wildcats led, 5-1, at halftime, and never let Brighton get closer to the argument because defenders like Amanda Corso, Nicole Perkins and Rachel Lasda closed up every lane to the net, and protected Jenny Fucillo, who had to make just six saves.
Lauren Welch was the lone Wildcat to score two goals. Six others — Kiersten Tupper, Colleen Bubnack, Lauren Burgoon, Sarah Kuonen, Amanda Cizenski and Ariel Kramer — earned single goals.
This came after an equally rewarding stretch. On back-to-back nights at the start of May, the Wildcats toyed with two other main Class A title contenders.
It started last Wednesday, when WG went to Liverpool. An overwhelming first half of offense helped push the Wildcats past the Warriors 14-7.
Even with a sound defense, the Warriors could not keep track of all of WG’s top players, leading to open shots and easy conversions in the early going.
By the time it went to halftime, it was 11-3 in the Wildcats’ favor, and it spent the rest of the game possessing the ball enough to prevent any kind of Liverpool comeback.
Sarah Kuonen paced the deep WG attack, scoring twice and adding three assists. Bekah Elmer had three goals, while Kiersten Tupper matched Kuonen’s two-goal output.
In all, 10 different players scored, as Colleen Bubnack, Amanda Corso, Chrissie Hanley, Amanda Cizenski, Lauren Welch, Lauren Burgoon, Maria DiFato and Jenny Perkins took turns getting goals.
Some energy was conserved, though, because the Wildcats had to come back home 24 hours later and face another tough foe in Cicero-North Syracuse, a makeup from the snowed-out April 16 affair.
The venue and opponent changed, but the result was just the same — a textbook West Genesee blitz that overwhelmed the Northstars and produced a 20-5 victory.
Mostly, the Wildcats used deadly spurts to leave CNS behind. Hanley, Bubnack and Burgoon all scored before the game was three minutes old.
For a time, it slowed up, but WG camped out in the Northstars’ end and wore the CNS defense down, leading to an eruption late in the half.
Elmer scored twice in the last 30 seconds before halftime to make it 9-1, and Tupper got two goals in a span of eight seconds early in the second half just to bring home the point further.
By the end, Burgoon, DiFato, Bubnack and Welch all had three-goal hat tricks, with Welch adding two assists. Tupper backed up her two goals with four assists, joining Elmer and Hanley in the two-goal column. Kuonen had one goal and one assist.
