Given the competition right in front of them, there was no chance of the Skaneateles boys soccer team looking too far ahead to its Columbus Day showdown with Cazenovia.

Mainly, that was because the Lakers had to host defending Section III Class B champion Westhill last Tuesday night, and it proved much more suspenseful than their first regular-season encounter, though Skaneateles still controlled the flow of play and beat the Warriors 2-1.

They had played on Sept. 10, at Westhill, and the Lakers, remembering how the Warriors had beaten them in the 2013 Section III Class B final, dominated that game from start to finish in a 4-0 shutout.

Since then, the Warriors, breaking in a lot of new starters after much of the 2013 starting lineup graduate, had improved plenty, especially on the defensive side.

Evidence of that improvement was found throughout the first half of the rematch with Skaneateles. The state Class B no. 9-ranked Lakers had few early chances, and even as it gained control of the flow of play late in the half, it still couldn’t break through, so it went to the break 0-0.

But it didn’t take long for Skaneateles to get going in the second half – less than seven minutes, to be precise. Skaneateles earned a corner kick. James Motyl sent it to the middle, and from the point Eli Goodell sent a screaming header to the top of the net, putting the Lakers in front 1-0.

Fired up by that goal, Skaneateles kept pressuring, and 10 minute later the margin doubled, thanks to Graham McCarthy, who took a pass from Jack Bailey and sent a hard shot to the top right corner. Again, Westhill goalie Antonio Scrimale had no chance to stop it.

Things quieted from there, partially due to Scrimale’s fine work in the net as he finished with 13 saves. And the Lakers’ defense maintained a shutout until Westhill’s Jack Miller, off a free kick from Brian Woodhouse, scored with 2:45 left. But the Warriors could not catch up.

Not looking ahead to Cazenovia, Skaneateles took care of a non-league game on Thursday night, venturing to Rochester and beating the McQuaid Knights 3-0.

This time around, the Lakers found the net twice in the first half to seize control. By game’s end, Goodell had notched a pair of goals, while Bailey contributed two assists and Sam Clymer put in the other goal. Billy Patrick only had to make four saves for the shutout.

Back home 24 hours later, looking for its seventh win in a row against Jordan-Elbridge, the Lakers got it, handling the Eagles 7-2 by unleashing an attack where half the roster seemed to get involved at one point or another.

Six different players earned goals, with only Clymer scoring twice. Goodell, McCarthy, Jake Peterson, Alex Dunn and Francis Lombardi picked up one goal apiece, with four others – Bailey, Andrew Weiss, Cullen McGlynn and Jon Hartnett – adding assists.

Of course, the Cazenovia showdown only begins a tough final week of the regular season, with Skaneateles also visiting Solvay on Thursday and then, on Saturday night, paying a visit to Marcellus, who moved up to Class A this fall, but still wanted to maintain its rivalry game against the Lakers.