When the Christian Brothers Academy and East Syracuse Minoa boys lacrosse teams squared off last Saturday afternoon at Alibrandi Stadium, the Brothers was looking to avoid an 0-2 start – and it did so.
CBA defeated the Spartans 10-5, and the depth shown on offense made a big difference. No less than seven Brothers players score, as compared to ESM’s two.
Joe Rosaschi (three goals) and Kollin Diedrickson (two goals) accounted for all of that Spartans production, while the Brothers featured lots of players, including Jace Whelan and Alex Calkins, who led the attack with two goals and one assist apiece.
Jack Jeschke was right behind them, earning one goal and one assist. Lincoln McGarrity, Ben McCreary and Zach Taylor added single tallies. Andrew Koscs, playing in goal, recorded six saves.
Four nights earlier, CBA was competitive throughout much of its opener against Westhill at Alibrandi , though a surge by the Warriors late in the third quarter led to an 11-6 defeat.
Eager to get started, the Brothers jumped out in front, 2-0, midway through the first quarter on goals by McCreary and Calkins 24 seconds apart.
Still in front, 2-1, going into the second period, CBA lost that edge when Casey Rogers and Mark Purcell 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.
Quite unlike CBA’s battle with Westhill, ESM never got into the fight with Homer in its season opener, falling 15-2 to the Trojans.
Homer, who reached last year’s sectional Class C final before falling to Cazenovia, showed that it had every intention of challenging for a title again, keeping ESM off the board during a 5-0 first half, and then scoring eight unanswered goals in the third quarter.
Only in the final period did the Spartans break up the shutout, with Connor Gridley and Derek Madonna putting in goals. Homer was far away, though, as 11 different Trojans managed to find the net, led by Dean Riley (three goals, three assists), Anthony Basile (three goals, two assists) and Brad Sovocool (two goals, three assists).
From there, the Spartans went to the other end of the spectrum Thursday night at Chittenango, erupting in the second quarter for a dozen goals to put away the Bears 18-5.
Only up 4-2 through one period, ESM spent the next 12 minutes burying Chittenango by scoring 12 times, an average of a goal per minute, and Rosaschi led the charge, dishing out four assists to go with his three-goal hat trick.
Jeff Toole scored four times, with Nate Sturick getting three goals and one assist. Madonna and Fred Johnson both gained two goals as Mike Macri tacked on a goal and Gridley managed two assists. Nick Drogo and Brenden Gibson combined to stop 10 of the Bears’ 15 shots.
