In a four-day span, the Liverpool boys lacrosse team played three times, but only could win one of those games.
This was a stretch full of high-profile competition, starting with last Wednesday night’s visit to West Genesee, where the Warriors stayed close for a long while before falling to the Wildcats by a score of 14-8.
Past encounters between Liverpool and WG were marked by the vast contrast in styles of play, with the Warriors employing its zone defense to frustrate a Wildcats team accustomed to employing man-to-man looks. Often, that slowed the game down and kept goals to a minimum.
That didn’t happen here, though, as the two sides battled through a lively 4-4 first quarter. Even as the pace slowed down the rest of the half, Liverpool kept in touch, only trailing by one, 6-5, as they reached the break.
Gradually, WG took over in the second half, winning face-offs and wearing down the Warriors with a diverse attack led by Mike Fletcher, who had three goals and three assists as David Procopio, Matt McDonald, Ryan McDonald and Nick Cunningham each scored twice.
Liverpool’s Matt Sala led both sides with four goals, but had far less help as Warriors goalie Kyle Halladay recorded 10 saves. Kendall Keahey scored twice, with Dom Castiglia and Conor Beaty earning one goal apiece and Antonio Rey contributing an assist.
In Friday’s game at Baldwinsville (where coach Mike Felice went to high school), the Warriors were quite productive, but it came in a catch-up situation where it could not quite pull in the Bees and took a 17-13 defeat.
All through the first half, B’ville’s potent attack cut through Liverpool’s defenses with relative ease and building up a 10-3 advantage, which it would need.
Late in the second quarter, the Warriors started its chase, but still found itself trailing 13-6 in the third period before Dillon Rogers scored twice in an eight-second span to provide a spark.
By the time Keahey found the net with 7:59 left, Liverpool had trimmed B’ville’s deficit to 14-11. But that was as close as it would get, B’ville countering with goals from Connor Smith and Ryan Gebhardt 12 seconds apart midway through the period, more than the Warriors could overcome.
Castiglia, Rogers and Nick Calabrese would each finish with three goals, while Sala had two goals and one assist. Gebhardt paced B’ville, scoring five times as Charlie Bertrand contributed four goals and two assists.
Back at LHS Stadium on Saturday, Liverpool had its annual visit from Essex Junction (Vermont), a team it had beaten with relative ease in recent years. But playing for the third time in less than 72 hours, the weary Warriors had to work all the way to the end here, pulling out a 16-15 victory.
Essex led 8-6 at halftime, with Liverpool catching up in the third quarter to tie it, 11-11, setting up an exchange down the stretch where the Warriors had an answer every time Essex tried to pull out in front.
Keahey finished with five goals and three assists, with Calabrese, Castiglia and Sala each scoring three times. Rogers kept up thanks to two goals and two assists as Rey added an assist and each of Halladay’s nine saves proved important.
At 3-5 reaching the midway point of the regular season, Liverpool visits Auburn Tuesday and then return home Friday to take on defending Section III Class A champion Fayetteville-Manlius, whom it beat 14-13 back on April 14 as the Hornets have struggled out to its own 3-5 start.
