Having never won a Section III championship before, it only figured that the Westhill boys lacrosse team, in order to make history, had to go through the unbeaten, no. 1-ranked defending state champions to have a chance at that elusive prize.
But as it turned out, Cazenovia proved too tough, in all phases of the game, for the no. 5 seed Warriors, whose season ended in a 9-2 defeat to the Lakers last Thursday night at Chittenango High School.
These teams had first played April 22, at Westhill, with the Warriors slowing the game’s tempo and, by doing so, giving Cazenovia its closest call of the season before taking a 5-4 defeat.
Both sides remembered that outcome for different reasons. Westhill left believing it could knock off the Lakers, while Cazenovia knew that it could not allow any opponent to dictate the pace, especially with a dominant face-off presence like Henry Mann.
Somehow, though, the first half of the rematch echoed the original, with the Warriors putting together long possessions and keeping the Lakers quiet on the offensive end. It took more than nine minutes before Mann found Lewis for the game’s opening goal.
Early in the second period, Cole Willard found the net, but for the rest of the half it was more long possessions by the Warriors and more time for the Lakers to wait them out.
Westhill tried hard to get on the board, but Cazenovia goalie Trevor Cross made a pair of point-blank stops in order for Cazenovia to go to the break nursing a 2-0 lead.
Somewhere early in the third quarter, Cazenovia’s attack found its groove once more. Alex Hunt took barely a minute to make it 3-0, and in a three-minute span, three more goals followed, as Willard and P.J. Brown took turns peppering the Warriors to make it 6-0.
Not until late in that third quarter did Westhill finally break up the shutout, Richie Easterly getting the goal. Mark Purcell added a fourth-quarter tally, but Cazenovia still got away as Willard, with four goals and two assists, and Brown, with three goals, accounted for most of the offense.
In order to earn that chance, Westhill first had to go on the road and muscle its way past its next-door neighbors, no. 4 seed Marcellus, in last Tuesday’s Class B quarterfinal, and with Casey Rogers leading the way, the Warriors did just that, prevailing by a score of 10-8.
Marcellus had beaten Westhill 11-7 in their lone regular-season encounter on April 29, and kept the Warriors quiet in the first quarter of the rematch, too, but could not establish much of a lead.
Thus, the Warriors, trailing, 2-1, could afford to stay patient, and in the second quarter it started to break through against Mustangs goalie Jake Lilly, getting nearly half of its offense in this period and inching in front, 5-4, going to halftime.
But it was the third quarter that decided matters. Rogers and his teammates got on a roll, not letting up until it had established a 10-5 lead, a cushion that was needed because Marcellus made a furious late charge that fell just short.
All told, Rogers scored four goals, the passes often coming from Jack Centore, who had three assists to go with his lone tally. Richie Easterly and Ryan Zimmerman offered all of the support, each finishing with two goals and one assist.
Just as big a difference-maker was the defense, who kept Marcellus quiet for long periods of time as goalie Jack Sweeney made 12 saves, twice the total of Mustang counterpart Jake Lilly.
For the Mustangs, whose first season under head coach Marc Cizenski ended with an 11-6 mark, Kevin Hutchings scored three times, with Ross Filtch and Harrison Cox each adding two goals. Mike McNaney had one goal and one assist as Matt Hutchings got three assists.
