With a pair of stunning one-man shows in the first half of consecutive outings, Westhill boys soccer senior Anthony Scaravillo made sure his Warriors remained undefeated in the OHSL Liberty division.
All told, Scaravillo had seven goals in last week’s action, accounting for all his team’s offense in Tuesday’s 4-2 win over Cazenovia and, two nights later, tacking on three more goals to propel Westhill past Skaneateles 5-3.
A quick start had Cazenovia right on Westhill’s heels in the Liberty standings, but Scaravillo scuttled any Laker plans to catch up.
Four different times in the first half, Scaravillo broke through Cazenovia’s defenses and beat Chris Matteson for goals, a hat trick plus one. Pat Wickersham, Barak BenYehuda and Tim Sheridan all got credit for assists.
The Lakers stayed in the contest with goals from Luke Dorsey and Conor Race, but got shut out in the second half, Tom Kinsella working his way to seven saves.
Now the Warriors faced those other Lakers, from Skaneateles, who had seen its entire starting lineup turn over since winning the state Class B title a year ago.
This especially hurt the Lakers on the defensive side, something Scaravillo was all too willing to exploit after the game’s start was delayed by rumbles of thunder in the area.
In a span of less than 90 seconds, Scaravillo notched back-to-back goals early in the first half, quickly putting his side ahead 2-0. And when Scaravillo beat Erik Pola in the 25th minute to make it 3-0, he had his second natural hat trick in as many games.
Skaneateles didn’t surrender, though. Mike Jorgensen put his side on the board, and after BenYehuda converted a penalty kick, B.J. Kerr converted off a corner kick just at the first-half horn.
With that momentum, Alex Brownlee headed home another corner kick, this one from Tyler Strods, to cut the margin to 4-3 early in the second half.
But in the 60th minute, Ryan Higman got whistled for a red card defending a shot near his own net with his hands inside the 18-yard box.
BenYehuda put home the ensuing penalty kick, his second of the night, and playing with a man advantage the rest of the way, the Warriors cruised from there, improving to 6-0 in league play and 6-3 overall.
However, Westhill would get a blemish Saturday, meeting undefeated Clinton in a possible playoff preview and taking a 2-0 loss.
Cold, wet conditions prevailed, and Westhill was, this time, on the other end of an early surge, Clinton’s Andrew Debraggio scoring both of his team’s goals in the first half.
As this went on, Marcellus had a rare chance to pile on the offense last Tuesday night, tearing Jordan-Elbridge apart in an 8-0 shutout.
Keenan Vaughn had two goals and one assist, with Tom Malloy also finding the net twice. Sean Dunn had a goal and two assists. Tom McNaney managed one goal and one assist as Nate Waite and Zack Dillon also converted. Eric Dorio, Geoff Golick and Kyle Jankowski added assists.
Now with some momentum, Marcellus took its own shot at Cazenovia on Friday and, mostly thanks to Waite, it beat the Lakers 4-1 for, arguably, its most impressive win of the season.
Just as Westhill did, the Mustangs hurt Cazenovia early. Waite led his side to a 3-0 halftime lead and, by the time it was done, he had a three-goal hat trick.
Mike McNaney had the other goal and assisted on one of Waite’s tallies, while Tom McNaney also got an assist. This moved Marcellus to 3-3 in league play, 3-5 overall.
