As if the Westhill boys lacrosse team didn’t feel good after its season-opening win over South Jefferson on March 28, that victory looked a lot better after the Spartans routed long-time power Carthage three nights later.
But the Warriors had moved on from South Jefferson, opening Onondaga High School League play at Alibrandi Stadium last Tuesday night with an impressive 11-6 victory over Christian Brothers Academy.
And it was done despite Westhill nearly getting shut out in the first quarter. Eager to get started, the Brothers jumped out in front, 2-0, midway through the period on goals by Ben McCreary and Sam Calkins 24 seconds apart.
Not until Casey Rogers found the net in the last minute of the quarter did the Warriors get on the board. Then Rogers and Chris Marnell landed goals in a 54-second span, and Rogers added another goal (his third of the night) in the waning seconds of the half.
Trailing 4-2 at the break, the Brothers attempted to quicken the pace early in the second half, and it worked for a brief while. Calkins earned his second and third goals, and when Ben Martin found the net at the 7:01 mark, CBA only trailed by one, 6-5.
For the rest of the period, though, Westhill kept the ball, and turned those possessions into four unanswered goals – two of them by Marnell, and one each by Rogers and Richie Easterly, that made it 10-5 with one period left.
Now with a comfortable margin, the Warriors slowed the game down, and CBA couldn’t capitalize on its many possessions, only netting Calkins’ fourth goal midway through the fourth quarter. Mark Purcell would lock up the victory by finding the net with 3:28 left.
Two nights later, the Warriors had its home opener against Tully, and it turned into a wild affair with little defense on both sides, and Westhill doing enough to fight past the Black Knights 20-16 and make it three wins in a row.
Tully brought plenty of speed and skill to the field, and didn’t get fazed when the Warriors took a 4-2 first-quarter lead. Over the course of the next two periods, the Black Knights scored 11 times, a number good enough to win many whole games.
But during that period, Westhill extended its lead to 16-13, and held on as it got massive efforts from Easterly, who hit double digits in points with a career-high eight goals and three assists, and Zimmerman, who scored six times to go with his three assists.
Matt McAnaney stepped in with three goals, while Purcell and Andrew French each had two assists. Rogers was held to one goal, the same total as Purcell and Nick French. Tully’s Nick Edinger had five goals and three assists, with T.J. Gibbons scoring four times.
Bishop Ludden began its season last Tuesday with a 17-8 defeat to LaFayette. It was close through most of the half, but the Lancers steadily built an 8-5 margin and then doubled the Gaelic Knights’ production in the third quarter to get away.
Mark Shattuck led Ludden, scoring four times. Connor Smith dished out four assists, with Phillip Buque getting two goals and two assists. Dominick Delvecchio and Doug Myrdek had the other goals as Anthony Talarico added an assist. Chris Hurley earned 17 saves in the net as, for LaFayette, Percy Booth proved unstoppable, piling up seven goals and five assists.
