West Genesee’s boys lacrosse team is a far different side from the one that fought to find consistency early this spring.
Emphatic proof of this was offered when the Wildcats dominated Liverpool, 14-4, Tuesday night, easily gaining a measure of revenge after losing an 7-4 decision to the Warriors at LHS Stadium on April 4.
“We’re improving, which is nice,” WG head coach Mike Messere said. “It’s a big improvement over the first time we met them. We played with a little more composure. We made better decisions.”
Liverpool coach Mike Felice tipped his cap to Messere’s squad.
“(The) Bottom line is we got outworked and outplayed,” Felice said. “(West Genesee) came to play. When you show up in a game like that not working hard, that’s going to be the outcome.”
By far, the biggest development for the Wildcats was welcoming back senior defender Garrett Waldron, who had missed most of the spring with a torn meniscus suffered in the March 30 season opener against Penfield.
With Waldron joining Nick Mellen and the rest of the Wildcats’ back line, they proceeded to apply trademark man-to-man pressure, which proved far more effective than the Warriors zone was against WG’s attack.
WG never trailed, scoring the game’s first two goals and leading 4-1 after the first quarter. The hosts started to pull away in the second quarter, taking a 7-2 edge to halftime. From there, it was quiet until WG poured it on in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Warriors, 6-1.
Brady Hoose led a balanced Wildcats scoring attack, the senior attacker earning three goals and four assists. Ryan St. Croix matched Hoose with three goals. The hosts got two goals each from Zach Anderson and Dan Ginestro.
Also, WG got single markers from Garrett Waldron, Ted Glesener, and Mark Niechcial. Anderson and Tom Pritchard had two assists each.Wildcat goalie Matt Koziol made four saves. Liverpool netminder Dominick Madonna turned aside 10 shots.
Justin Renk paced the Warriors with two goals. Kendall Keahey and Jamie Kuppel scored one goal apiece.
West Genesee (10-4) next travels to Auburn on Thursday, the last contest before next Tuesday’s highly-anticipated regular-season finale with unbeaten Fayetteville-Manlius.
Messere hopes the momentum gained in this win over Liverpool carries over. “We just need to improve a little bit more to get to where we want to be,” he said.
Liverpool (8-5) hosts Rome Free Academy on Thursday at 7 p.m. Felice isn’t concerned that his team is headed in the wrong direction heading to the contest with the Black Knights. “
We’re not worried about an outcome like this,” Felice said. “We’re not at rock bottom at all. It’s just a little blip in the road.”
