No player on the Liverpool boys lacrosse team was born the only time the Warriors won a Section III Class A championship, in 1989. Even its head coach, Mike Felice, was just a boy, with no possible inkling that he would lead the Warriors to a chance at its first title 22 years later.
Yet here Liverpool sits with that chance, the end result of a superb performance in a Class A semifinal stretched out over two days where it took apart no. 3 seed Fayetteville-Manlius in every phase of the game and won by a 14-5 margin.
It all began on Thursday, at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, with Liverpool setting out to prove that the 5-4 victory it achieved over F-M back on April 21 amid cold, blustery conditions was not a fluke.
Perhaps the Hornets came out expecting the Warriors to use that same deliberate approach – patient attack, tight zone defense – that had worked so well the first time around. If so, they were mistaken.
Liverpool was patient early on, but it still seized a 3-1 lead. Then, in the second quarter the Warriors used a sharp attack backed up by a physical, imposing defense to take charge, blanking F-M and expanding its margin to 7-1 by the time they reached the half.
Not only were the Warriors riled up, so were the skies. Rain and lightning caused two different weather delays, and the second of them, late in the third quarter with Liverpool well out in front 11-3, caused the game to be stopped.
It was decided to halt play and resume on Friday at LHS Stadium. On the same home turf where it beat F-M more than a month ago, Liverpool put away its first sectional semifinal win in 10 years without any further drama.
Matt Savlov, who piled up 10 points in the first-round playoff win over Henninger earlier this week, had four goals and one assist against the Hornets. Joe Corapi also found the net four times, adding two assists as Austin Hope got two goals and one assist.
Chris Spencer, with a goal and three assists, and Devin Clegg, with a goal and three assists, offered ample support, with Kyle DeAngelis and Jeff Conley also scoring. Dominick Madonna had a sensational game in the net, stopping 12 of the 17 shots he faced.
All this leads Liverpool back to the Bragman Stadium turf, this time to meet nine-time defending champion West Genesee (who beat Baldwinsville 14-4 in the other semifinal) with a Class A title on the line. The Warriors are 17-1, with that lone defeat of the season coming to the Wildcats in a 17-6 romp back on April 7 in Camillus, long before the Warriors knew its own capabilities.
Now the upstart Warriors seek to upend the Wildcats’ dynasty – and by doing so, ending a long title drought.
