Chittenango’s boys lacrosse team came within inches of its most significant victory of the season when it hosted East Syracuse-Minoa last Tuesday night.
Instead, the Bears emerged with a 7-6 defeat to the Spartans, negating what had been a strong comeback after a quiet first half.
Cold in the opening stages, Chittenango trailed, 4-1, at the break, but its defense proceeded to shut out ESM in the third quarter and, with three straight goals, tied it at 4-4.
They would trade goals throughout the final period, too, until the Spartans’ Connor Haynes converted with 5:08 left. Chittenango had chances to pull back even and force overtime, but could not quite pull it off.
Part of the reason it was so close was the superb effort of Bears goalie Connor Shea, who stopped 20 of 27 shots he faced. Kyle Zimmer scored three times, while Aaron Jones, Garrett Sadler and Devin Phelps had one goal apiece. Phelps earned an assist, too. Brian Kiehl led ESM with three goals and one assist.
In Thursday night’s 13-9 defeat to New Hartford, the Bears struggled on the defensive side in the first half, allowing the Spartans to steadily build a 10-6 edge.
From there, New Hartford slowed the game down and didn’t let Chittenango get closer. Zimmer, in defeat, scored four goals, with Jones and Sadler each scoring twice. Brian Perriello had the other goal as Phelps picked up a pair of assists. Nick Levanti led the Spartans with four goals and two assists.
Chittenango’s girls team took an 18-3 defeat to ESM last Tuesday night, only getting two goals from Ali Barber and a goal and assist from Brianna Schiedo. Megan LeGro, Nikki DeVona and Haley DeVona paced the Spartans with three goals apiece.
Though it got a lot closer on Thursday night against New Hartford, the Bears still lost to the Spartans by the exact same 13-9 margin as the boys contest.
Schiedo continued to show her improvement, putting in four goals, while Barber managed three goals and one assist. Katrina Farsaci and Lauren Billington also converted, but more often New Hartford goalie Andrea Obeid fooled them, earning 21 saves overall.
The Bears’ skid ended Saturday in a 13-12 overtime victory over Clinton, where Chittenango blew a 5-3 halftime edge, but got two goals in the pair of three-minute OT periods to overcome the Warriors’ tally.
Kaitlin Antelmi had a career performance, banging in eight goals to carry the Bears’ attack. Farsaci scored twice, with Schiedo, Barber and Ami Petosa earning the other goals. Both of Chittenango’s teams take on Jamesville-DeWitt and Whitesboro this week.
