Another year…and another semifinal exit for the Fayetteville-Manlius boys lacrosse team in the Section III Class A playoffs at the expense of Liverpool.
The no. 3 seed Hornets fell to the no. 2 seed Warriors 10-7 Saturday night at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, and as with the 2011 semifinal and their regular-season meeting earlier this month, the culprit was F-M’s inability to solve Liverpool’s zone defense.
At first, the Hornets appeared ready to seize control. Already ahead 2-1 after Kevin Lux’s goal off a Warrior turnover, F-M was ready to double the margin when Kroy Arnold scored – but he was in the crease, and it was waved off.
Bailed out, Liverpool closed the period on a 3-0 run and would not trail again, the Warriors settling into the zone that, again, forced the Hornets outside to take low-percentage shots. Often, those shots went right to goalie Dominick Madonna, who finished with 16 saves.
Down 6-3 at halftime, F-M was shut down for much of the third quarter, the deficit growing to 7-3 before a couple of goals, including one by Ryan Simmons, made it 7-5 going to the final period.
That was as close as it would get, though, as Liverpool won face-offs, patiently worked the ball around and used back-to-back goals from Scott Kershner, both fed by Austin Hope, to put the Hornets away.
Lux finished with three goals, while Simmons and Jimmy Krizman both scored twice. Derek Andrake, Clay Arnold and Dan Cahill joined Lux and Krizman in the assist column. Hope had four assists for Liverpool as Kyle DeAngelis led the winners with three goals and one assist.
F-M reached the semifinals with an efficient effort in last Thursday’s opening-round game against no. 6 seed Rome Free Academy, pulling away to beat the Black Knights 10-3.
Remembering that it lost to the Hornets 18-4 back on April 12, RFA resolved not to let that happen again, which led to long possessions in the first half to slow F-M down.
Even with that, though, the Hornets led 3-1 at the break, and gradually pulled away in the third quarter, anchored again by Simmons, who had four assists to go with two goals.
Andrake, Krizman, Cahil and Ryan DaRin each matched Simmons’ two-goal output, while Clay Arnold and David Hajduk earned assists in what turned out to be F-M’s last win of a 14-4 season. All of the Hornets’ losses were to the eventual sectional finalists, Liverpool and West Genesee.
