At the start of a high-profile week, the Liverpool boys lacrosse team took a giant step toward earning the CNY Counties League National division regular-season title.
Up against Baldwinsville Tuesday night at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, the Warriors used a well-timed series of scoring spurts to withstand the Bees and record a 14-12 victory, moving into first place in the league and improving to 8-2 in the process.
Three different times, Liverpool went ahead. Each time, B’ville would come back, forcing the Warriors to go deeper into its reserve to pull this one out.
The spurts would help. It emerged in the first quarter, when Nick Kline and Mike Mahardy scored 27 seconds apart, giving the Warriors a 3-1 lead.
Eventually, the margin grew to 6-3 in the second quarter, but it could not pull away – and by the time Billy Ward converted 14 seconds into the second half, it was even again at 6-6.
Liverpool absorbed it, then erupted again, with three goals in 54 seconds – first Mahardy, then Devin Clegg six seconds later, and finally Matt Savlov, his first of the night.
B’ville once more battled back to pull even, 9-9, and the exchanged continued into the fourth quarter before yet another spurt – Clegg and Matt DiMarco scoring 38 seconds apart, backed up by Savlov hitting again with 5:11 left to make it 14-11.
One more time, the Bees would threaten, Kyle Styer getting his fifth and sixth goals of the night to make it 14-13 before DiMarco rushed in and beat Parker Ferrigan for the clincher with 1:43 left.
It was DiMarco’s fourth goal of the night, to go with one assist. Mahardy found the net three times as Ethan VanMarter and Austin Hope also put in goals. Jamie Campagna finished with 12 saves, many of them point-blank.
Liverpool will play Auburn Thursday night at Solvay’s Earl Hadley Stadium before going to the Carrier Dome Friday night to play East Syracuse-Minoa – who beat Auburn 7-6 on Monday night.
The Liverpool girls team, who also plays ESM in that Dome event on Friday, gave Baldwinsville a tough fight Tuesday before losing to the Bees 12-10.
After it fell behind 7-5 in an active first half, the Warriors made things tough in the late going, challenging every time B’ville tried to attack and maintaining the margin — but not catching up.
Allison Flood led both sides with four goals, while Nina Tassone found the net three times. Kathleen Conese fed both of them, earning three assists to go with her pair of goals as Ashleigh Caruso got the other tally. Mary Fadden and Kristina Lombard added assists. Tess Tracy had six saves as Sam Yaro, Maggine Monnat (three goals each) and Sarah Clark (two goals) led B’ville along.
