Though not the prime target that it was on the way to a state Class B championship in 2010, the Skaneateles boys soccer team still intends to cast a large shadow over the Section III playoffs that start this week.
The Lakers started its push toward the playoffs last Monday, against Jordan-Elbridge, remaining steady and calm in a 3-0 shutout of the Eagles.
Overall, Skaneateles took 21 shots to J-E’s five, and broke through with goals from Austin Amory, Ryan Higman and Alex Brownlee. B.J. Kerr added an assist.
Hosting Solvay on Wednesday night, the Lakers found it close for a while, only to take over in the late stages and push past the Bearcats 5-3.
Solvay had proven a pain for Skaneateles back on Sept. 27, forcing the Lakers to come back to pull out a 5-4 victory.
Here, it wasn’t as extreme, but the Bearcats played the Lakers to a 2-2 first-half draw. Late in the game, though, the Lakers broke free, as Brownlee got two goals and one assist and Kerr got a goal and two assists. Nico Petrocci and Sam Goodell had the other goals as Mike Jorgensen added an assist.
And it was a tough assignment for Saturday’s regular-season finale, as the Lakers visited Westhill, a team it has lost to 5-3 back on Sept. 29, mostly due to Anthony Scaravillo’s first-half hat trick.
This time, it wasn’t as close, Skaneateles falling to the Warriors 4-0 and, once again, Scaravillo was largely responsible. He again scored three goals and assisted on the other tally, by Jeff Dimond, as the Lakers fell behind 3-0 by halftime and never could recover.
Thus, Skaneateles sits at the .500 mark (8-8) heading into the Class B tournament, hoping to surprise people from a lower seed, which is quite different from a year ago.
As the no. 9 seed in Class B, the Lakers take on no. 8 seed Sherburne-Earlville in Wednesday’s opening round, with the winner to take a shot at unbeaten top seed Clinton on Saturday – the same Warrior team Skaneateles beat in last year’s sectional final.
