Only once did the Fayetteville-Manlius boys lacrosse team move ahead of Baldwinsville Friday night – the only time it mattered.
Junior Ryan DaRin’s goal, 35 seconds into overtime, gave the Hornets an 8-7 victory over the Bees at cold, wind-swept Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
Never leading once in regulation, F-M, no. 11 in the state Class A rankings, still pulled it out and, by doing so, will carry an eight-game win streak into Tuesday night’s home showdown with West Genesee.
Yet head coach Chris Kenneally was quick to point out that the Hornets were not caught looking ahead to the Wildcats on this night. It just ran into a fired-up opponent playing at a high level.
This was the same B’ville team F-M had handled, 15-6, at home on April 14, but the rematch took a far different course from the start as the Bees grabbed a quick 3-0 lead on goals by Pat Colligan, Steve Petrelli and Nate Rutkowski.
From shaky passing and rushed shots to a rash of turnovers, F-M kept hurting itself every time it tried to catch up in the first half. After the Hornets moved within 4-3, B’ville restored the margin, Petrelli and Luke Evans putting shots home.
Trailing 6-3 at halftime, F-M changed goalies as Brian Bedell replaced Dan Wells in the net, and Bedell was sensational in the third quarter, turning away all five shots he faced. Still, F-M only got one goal in that period, which made it 6-4.
It wasn’t until a 46-second stretch early in the fourth quarter, when David Ondrich won consecutive face-offs, leading to Ryan Simmons and Kevin Lux hitting on back-to-back goals, that the Hornets pulled even. Even with this, though, the Bees did not flinch.
B’ville went back in front on Colligan’s second goal with 7:46 left, and won the ensuing face-off, patiently killing off time as it looked for an insurance tally. But F-M forced a turnover and again turned to Simmons, who beat Parker Ferrigan for the tying goal with 3:51 to play.
Again, the Bees grabbed the face-off and ran off the clock until the final seconds of regulation. Bedell made a point-blank stop on Petrelli’s shot, and just before the hon Ben Paprocki appeared to hit the game-winner, but his shot went off the post.
A foul on the overtime face-off gave the Hornets the ball. Wasting little time, F-M worked it around until Dan Cahill passed it to the right point, where DaRin’s high shot ripped past Ferrigan into the top of the net to end the game.
And now the Hornets could focus on West Genesee, who gave F-M its lone defeat of the season, 7-5, at Wildcat Stadium on April 7 with a pair of goals late in regulation. The rematch, on F-M’s new turf field, could go a long way into determining who gets the top seed for the Section III Class A playoffs, less than a month from now.
