All season long, the East Syracuse-Minoa boys lacrosse team had found a way to escape when in major trouble, as it had done on May 8 when it had erased an early five-goal deficit and made its way past Homer 10-9 in overtime.
Just four days later, these same two sides met again at ESM Stadium, but the result proved quite different, the Trojans again starting fast and, this time, not letting the Spartans back into it, leading to a 15-6 defeat.
It was ESM’s second defeat of the season and, more importantly, allowed Jamesville-DeWitt to leapfrog them and get the top seed for the Section III Class B playoffs, though both had byes straight into semifinals on Thursday at Central Square – the Spartans to face Carthage or Fulton, the Red Rams to face Watertown or New Hartford. The finals are Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Carrier Dome.
Perhaps the Spartans relaxed too much at the start when Homer went out in front 5-1, and that was understandable, since it was 6-1 in the first meeting before it stormed back.
But the Trojans remained aggressive, stretching out the margin to 9-3 by halftime, and continuing to pull clear behind the work of Jake Gray, who had five goals and one assist, and Anthony Basile, who added four goals, the pair deftly solving ESM’s defenses.
In defeat, the Spartans saw Corey Haynes earn three of the team’s six goals and Joe Rosaschi score twice, with Kyle Hesse getting the other goal. Tom VanDeusen contributed an assist as, in the net, Alec Miller recorded seven saves.
To put it mildly, ESM was upset about this result – and it took out the frustration on New Hartford 24 hours later, smashing those other Spartans 16-4 to finish a 14-2 regular season.
Quite unlike their first meeting April 17, when it had to rally and beat New Hartford 8-7 in overtime, ESM moved out in front in the second quarter, and then erased any doubts about the outcome with a third-quarter blitz where it scored seven unanswered goals.
In fact, ESM blanked New Hartford 10-0 in the second half, as superb defense offered an ample support system to the likes of Rosso, who scored four times, as well as VanDeusen and Rosaschi, who had three goals apiece. Haynes added two goals as Nick Sturick, Nate Sturick, Pat Byrant and Kollin Diedrickson each got one goal.
J-D missed out on all of this up-and-down drama, the Red Rams quite content to just venture to Cortland on Tuesday and jump all over the Purple Tigers in a dominant first half and prevail, 17-7.
Before Cortland could even get settled, J-D got hot on the offensive end, and stayed that way until halftime, steadily marching its way to a 13-1 advantage, and then relaxing the rest of the night as it knew the top seed in the sectional tournament was secure.
Griffin Feiner nearly matched Cortland’s goal production by himself, scoring six times and adding a pair of assists. Ryan McKee and Griffin Johnson each had three-goal hat tricks, with Johnson also getting two assists. Grayson Burns added two goals and one assist as Ryan Durkin, Matt Murad and Brad Carr each got one goal and one assist.
Meanwhile, CBA, getting a boost of confidence before heading into the Class C sectional tournament, broke open a tense game with visiting Westhill in the fourth quarter and went on to beat the Warriors 15-7.
For three quarters, neither side could make any kind of headway. But it all turned in the early stages of the fourth quarter, when CBA’s Jack Zerillo score twice in a 25-second span.
From that point on, Westhill’s defense wore down, and the Brothers exploited it, especially Braedon Gait, who poured in seven goals to match the Warriors’ entire output, while Zerillo finished with three goals and three assists.
Right behind them, Andrew Romagnoli gained two goals and three assists, with Alex Brunner getting two goals and two assists. Lincoln McGarrity earned the other goal, and Andrew Koscs put together an 11-save effort.
Manlius-Pebble Hill, off to the post-season for the first time, beat Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 12-10 in Wednesday’s regular-season finale, using a closing 5-2 run to pull it out as Luke McQueeny and Duncan Morrison each had five goals, while Sam Woodword had two goals and two assists.
