Losses to Fayetteville-Manlius and West Genesee had the Cicero-North Syracuse boys lacrosse team in a skid, while its counterparts from Liverpool were making a furious late push to atone for early-season woes.
That was the scenario heading into Tuesday night’s clash at Bragman Stadium, and while it did prove nervous for a while, the Northstars took over in the fourth quarter, like it has at other times this season, and put away the Warriors 22-11.
They had first played April 3, at LHS Stadium, with C-NS prevailing 11-7 amid the Warriors’ woeful start. The sense was that this rematch could prove as close, especially with Liverpool’s vast improvement late in the regular season.
But the Northstars kept the Warriors off the board in a 2-0 first quarter, and then its attack really picked up, threatening to turn the game into a runaway as C-NS led, 7-1, at the break.
What followed, in the third quarter, was a wild exchanage that featured 13 goals. Just as importantly, once-quiet Liverpool had seven of them, closing the gap to 13-8 and making the home fans a bit nervous.
All concerns were cast aside, though, as C-NS continually exploited the Warriors’ zone defense during a closing 9-3 spurt.
Andrew Burns and Zach Debottis led the way, each of them earning four goals and two assists. Nick Mirizio had three goals and one assist, while Tyler Griffo and Ozzy Crisalli each scored twice.
Twelve different C-NS players got a goal by game’s end as Tom Koster, Nick Riccardi, Bryan Cline, Alex Beck, Jason Dickson, Ryan Waldron and Brad Williams each found the net, with Eric Sauer and Devon Bronner earning assists.
Dom Castiglia led Liverpool’s late push, pouring in five goals. Justin Renk had two goals and three assists, with Peter Sterio also finding the net twice. Kendall Keahey, Antonio Rey and Matt Sala had the other goals, Dillon Rogers contributing an assist.
