At last, the West Genesee boys lacrosse team was on home turf, its two-week, up-and-down road odyssey that included a lopsided defeat (to Fairport on April 12) and an inspirational victory (over Jamesville-DeWitt on April 19) having reached a conclusion.
WG took on Loyola, visiting from the Chicago area, on Saturday morning, and for the third time this spring, it lost on a Saturday, falling to Loyola 7-6.
It was 3-3 at halftime, and Loyola, dictating the pace, stayed within range and didn’t panic when the Wildcats took a 6-5 lead late in the fourth quarter, getting both the tying and go-ahead goals before regulation time ran out.
In defeat, Tyler Brown scored three times, but no other Wildcat player had multiple goals. David Procopio managed a goal and two assists as Ryan McDonald and Will Northrop also found the net. Matt Koziol stopped 11 of the 18 shots he faced.
Right before coming home, WG still had two more road trips, with wildly varying results. It visited Oswego last Tuesday night, and it turned into a low-scoring affair that was far from the Wildcats’ best effort, but still led to a 6-3 victory over the Buccaneers.
All looked normal when WG sprinted to a 3-0 first-quarter lead. But Oswego was determined to slow things down, and did so for the rest of the half, keeping the ball away from the Wildcats and notching a goal to move within 3-1.
During the second half, the two sides both struggled to find any sort of rhythm. This was especially true on WG’s side, with goals proving elusive and only a strong defense preventing some real stress in the game’s latter stages.
Procopio still managed to score three times and add an assist. Brad Howes had two goals, with McDonald adding a goal and two assists. Joe Brown had the other goal. Matt Koziol stopped eight of the 11 Oswego shots he faced.
Unhappy with this effort, WG felt a lot better on Thursday after it went to Liverpool and displayed far more firepower in an 18-4 romp over the Warriors.
Against the same Liverpool team it shut out 15-0 earlier in the month in Camillus, the Wildcats poured in 15 goals in the first half alone, fully exploiting the Warriors’ zone defense with a series of shots that found the net.
Again, Procopio led the way, earning four goals. Tyler Brown and Derek Farrell each had three goals, with McDonald, Ian Cahill, Nick Cunningham, Matt Milne, Tim Sexton, Sean Marks, Mike Geremia and Collin Kobuszewski getting one goal apiece. Cahill, Cunningham and Kobuszewski also earned assists.
The loss to Loyola left WG at 7-3, though none of its losses have come to local Section III foes and it will be heavily favored in games this week against Central Square and Rome Free Academy.
