If ever a final score deceived, it was the West Genesee boys soccer team’s 5-1 loss to Fayetteville-Manlius last Monday night in Camillus.
With less than 20 minutes to play, the two sides were even, 1-1, the Wildcats keeping up with the state no. 3-ranked Hornets, before F-M took over with a big offensive surge in the late stages.
With soggy conditions at WG’s grass field, the game was moved to the artificial turf stadium, where in the opening minutes Jake Sutherland twice had good scoring chances, only to have F-M goalie Kenny Chapman make the stops.
Still, the Hornets controlled most of the flow of play, and in the 34th minute took a 1-0 lead when Haile Marr, up the middle, took a pass from Kyle Lunney and beat Dylan Condon with a low shot just inside the left post.
As the second half wore on, it remained 1-0 as WG built up pressure. That paid off when, in the 60th minute, Zach Perkins curved a shot from the right side just out of Chapman’s reach into the top right corner of the net.
It was the first goal F-M had allowed in nearly a month (eight-plus games in all), and it had a loud response.
Marr’s low shot put his team back in front less than two minutes after Perkins’ goal, and Brendan Murray made it 3-1 just four minutes later. Two more goals – one by Tyler Forbes, the other a Forbes pass deflected into the net by a Wildcat defender – created the final margin.
WG had far different outcomes the rest of the week, starting Thursday night with a one-sided effort against Corcoran that led to an 8-2 romp over the Cougars.
A six-goal first half settled matters quickly, as Ryan Alberts and Kyle Burke put up two goals apiece. Jake Sutherland had one goal and one assist, while Mike DeCirce, Ryan Ivers and Sam Dudevski also converted. Eric Swindon had a pair of assists as Stefanos Stamoulacatos and Joe Farrell earned single assists.
Though the production in Friday’s game at Auburn got cut in half, WG still prevailed 4-1, led by Sutherland as he picked up two goals and one assist. Stamoulacatos and Ivers managed the other goals as the Wildcats improved to 7-4 on the season.
Off until Thursday night, West Genesee’s girls side returned to action against a pesky side in 7-3 Rome Free Academy and had plenty of nervous moments before getting past the Black Knights 2-1.
Only ahead 1-0 at the break, WG saw Elaina Gaultiere score to put RFA on the board. However, the Wildcats answered, and hung on as Melissa Fumano earned one goal and assisted on the other, by Erica Geremia. Each of Andrea Francisco’s nine saves proved important.
Each of the WG soccer teams are home all of this week, with the boys facing Henninger Tuesday and the girls hosting F-M a night later.
