What the Cicero-North Syracuse boys lacrosse team hoped as it entered the Section III Class A playoffs was that it had not peaked too soon.
Once the owners of a seven-game win streak in April, the Northstars have only gone 5-3 since, its up-and-down finish symbolized by a 7-4 defeat to Baldwinsville last Tuesday night at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
After waiting 24 hours for the weather to calm down, C-NS still had to deal with high winds and B’ville’s natural-grass surface, something it had rarely played on this season.
That slowed the Northstars down, and so did a tough Bees defense that wasn’t fazed by having senior goalie Sean Coe in the net instead of its normal starter, Riley Smith.
During a low-scoring first half, C-NS was stymied, and it produced a 3-2 halftime deficit. The slow play continued in the third period, and even as the Northstars tied it, 3-3, it still wasn’t please with the pace.
The more patient Bees got rewarded when, led by Charlie Bertrand (three goals, one assist) and Connor Smith (two goals, one assist) it outscored C-NS 4-1 in the fourth quarter.
Coe continually made big stops, finishing with 12 saves, one more than Northstars counterpart Zach Sheridan. Only Nate Scarlata, with two goals, and Zach Debottis and Ryan Waldron, with one goal apiece, put shots past Coe, Debottis adding a pair of assists.
Liverpool’s season, on the other hand, ended without a playoff berth, Syracuse striking the last blow against the Warriors last Wednesday night in an 18-11 decision at LHS Stadium.
A strong start had Liverpool up, 6-4, on the Cougars through one period, more than half the total it got when it lost a narrow 12-11 decision to Syracuse back on April 2 at Corcoran’s turf field.
It didn’t take long, though, for the Cougars to regain control and contain Liverpool’s attack, with Syracuse taking a 9-8 lead by halftime and then staying patient until the fourth quarter, when it outscored the Warriors 6-1 to get away.
Kendall Keahey still managed five goals and two assists, while Dom Castiglia scored three times, adding a single assist. Anthony Calabrese got two goals and Matt Sala had one goal and one assist. Antonio Rey added a pair of assists and Dillon Rogers got an assist.
Syracuse’s Sean Eccles amassed six goals and four assists and his brother, Matt Eccles, had four goals and three assists. Also, Cougars goalie John DeMott had 16 saves, three more than Liverpool counterpart Kyle Halladay.
While Syracuse earned the no. 6 seed for the sectional tournament, C-NS fell all the way back to the no. 5 seed, meaning it would have to go on the road and upend no. 4 seed and defending champion Fayetteville-Manlius, who had knocked off West Genesee and Cazenovia late in the regular season, if it wanted to play on its home turf for Saturday’s semifinal round.
