After a pair of regular-season attempts to upend the reigning Section III Class C champions from its throne, the Skaneateles boys lacrosse team has earned one more shot at Cazenovia.
This Laker clash, which takes place Saturday in the sectional Class C semifinals at East Syracuse Minoa Stadium, was made possible by some high drama in Wednesday night’s quarterfinal in Adams between no. 5 seed Skaneateles and no. 4 seed South Jefferson.
Regulation time was not enough to settle this one, nor was one overtime period. It wasn’t until the second extra frame that Patrick Major netted the goal that pushed the Lakers past the Spartans 9-8. It was Major’s lone goal of the night.
Despite holding home-field advantage, South Jefferson had not faced, in the Frontier League, the amount of tough opponents that Skaneateles did, but that hardly seemed to matter as the two sides went at it for more than 50 minutes of tense on-field action.
Led by Benner Guertsen, who had three goals, and Austin Robaire, who got four assists, the Spartans stayed right with the Lakers, and had chances to win that it could not convert.
Skaneateles finally did prevail, seeing Alex Dunn score three times for the hat trick and Owen Kuhns add three assists. Cullen McGlynn and Jack VanSlyke anchored the attack, each with two goals and two assists, while Sam Duggan also scored. Kyle Oschner finished with six saves, five less than South Jefferson counterpart John Crandall.
And this leads to the semifinal against Cazenovia, who has rolled past Clinton (21-1) and Marcellus (15-2) in the early rounds of the sectional tournament and possesses confidence that success can provide. Skaneateles has to get through all that if it wants to advance to next Wednesday’s Class C final at the Carrier Dome against Westhill or CBA.
