For a month, the West Genesee boys lacrosse team had resisted all of the challengers – sometimes with ease, sometimes not so, as the overtime battle with Jamesville-DeWitt on April 18 proved – and stayed unbeaten.
But the state no. 4-ranked Wildcats would not stay perfect. Cazenovia, a two-time state Class C champion in 2011 and ‘13 who got back to the state finals a year ago, came to Camillus last Monday night and, with an impressive defensive effort, prevailed by a 9-5 margin.
What made Cazenovia’s effort more remarkable was the timing of the game. WG had played just once in the previous week (beating Cicero-North Syracuse on April 24), but the Lakers were on the field for the sixth time in nine days, and still had games ahead against Skaneateles and Westhill.
None of this mattered much, though, because Cazenovia, with its matchup zone defense, played the game at the pace it wanted, and forced WG to adapt.
It was tied, 2-2, after one period, but with back-to-back goals in the second quarter, the Lakers moved out in front, and would stay there the rest of the way.
Trailing 4-3 at halftime, the Wildcats got hurt by a third quarter where it again did a solid job of containment, yet got shut out and saw the margin grow to 6-3.
Twice, the Lakers scored in the fourth quarter. Twice, WG countered, but it never got closer than that three-goal margin, and Cazenovia put it away, getting two goals and two assists from Cole Willard, while Alex Hunt and P.J. Brown also scored twice.
Tyler Shoults and Mike Fletcher had two goals apiece on the Wildcats’ side. Nick Cunningham earned the other goal, with Ryan McDonald adding an assist and Nick O’Neill making seven saves.
