In one eventful afternoon, the Skaneateles boys lacrosse team’s emphatic march toward championship honors, in Section III and beyond, appeared to get a lot tougher. It wasn’t just that Skaneateles, the state’s top-ranked Class C team, took its first loss of the season to no. 3-ranked Cazenovia 17-8 Tuesday at the Sean Goggin Sports Complex. It was that the visiting Lakers saw one of its best players, Paul O’Donnell, taken to the sidelines with a separated shoulder, his return uncertain – at least it was for a couple of days, anyway. All through this season, as Skaneateles romped to an 11-0 start, O’Donnell had teamed with fellow seniors Kevin Rice and Mike Richards to form a trio that had accounted for more than 200 points. And O’Donnell was coming off a big effort in last Saturday’s 19-13 win over LaFayette at Onondaga Community College, where he had notched eight goals. Now Cazenovia loomed, and Skaneaetles knew it wouldn’t be easy. In their first encounter April 8 at Skaneateles, it took a superb effort from sophomore goalie Ryan Higman (13 saves) to pull out a 10-8 win, and since then Cazenovia had reeled off nine wins in a row. The start was rough for both sides. Skaneateles could not win a face-off, but Cazenovia suffered from a rash of turnovers and penalties. Thus, goals by Rice and Zach Brownlee pushed the visitors ahead 2-0 before the hosts countered with Connor Cannizzaro and Mason Powell converting. It all began to turn in the second period. Trailing 4-2, Skaneateles got further victimized when Cazenovia forward Matt Donovan used a series of strong moves to notch three goals in less than two minutes. So even with Jeff Higman’s tally, Skaneateles now trailed 7-3. As the half ended, it appeared Skaneateles had turned it around, thanks to Rice, who hit two straight goals, the latter of them coming at the horn to cut the deficit to 7-5. Better yet, frustrated Cazenovia goalie Ben Romagnoli broke his stick, leading to a one-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, so Skaneateles would open the second half with a man advantage. But it would do so without O’Donnell. Late in the half, O’Donnell gave a hard check to Cazenovia’s Joe Nardella, and in the process separated his left shoulder. His unexpected absence would hurt Skaneateles, especially in man-up situations, where three times in the third period Cazenovia killed off one-minute penalties. Meanwhile, Cazenovia’s potent attack, still at full strength, would get better as the game wore on. Late in the third quarter, it went on a 4-0 run, two of the goals coming from Greacen, and in the first 27 seconds of the final period both Nardella and Greacen would convert to make it 15-7, putting the game out of reach. In defeat, Jeff Higman led Skaneateles with a three-goal hat trick, adding an assist, while Richards had one goal and one assist and Ryan Higman got 11 saves. Greacen, who dominated in the face-off circle with Nardella’s help, had five goals to lead Cazenovia as Connor Cannizzaro (four goals, two assists) was right behind and Romagnoli finished with 18 saves. Fortunately for every Skaneateles fan, the injury to O’Donnell was not a serious one, and he was back on the field Thursday night for the Lakers’ 17-4 win over Jordan-Elbridge. Not only did O’Donnell take the field, he put in four goals as Skaneateles used big spurts in the first and third periods to build a 15-2 advantage. Rice had four goals and three assists, with Richards grabbing three goals and four assists. Connor O’Hara matched Richards with a three-goal hat trick of his own, with Brendan Major finding the net twice. Brownlee managed one goal and one assist.