When the Fayetteville-Manlius boys lacrosse team recorded big late-season wins over West Genesee (in overtime) and Cazenovia (in the last seconds), the impression, going into the Section III Class A playoffs, was that the Hornets had a fighting chance to reclaim the title banner that, in 2014, ended a 21-year championship drought.
Instead of inspiration, though, F-M met a quick end on its home field in Wednesday’s Class A sectional opener, the no. 4 seed Hornets toppled by no. 5 seed Cicero-North Syracuse 14-6.
Beyond the way the regular season ended, the result was surprising because, when the two sides had first met on April 21, F-M, despite all of its early struggles, had smashed C-NS 12-5.
Combine the previous result with the big wins it had on the ledger, and F-M had every reason to feel confident – but it soon was apparent that this meeting with the Northstars would have a far different outcome.
Bent on payback, and motivated to play its sectional semifinal against West Genesee on its home turf at Bragman Stadium, C-NS took charge in the first nine minutes, roaring out to a 5-0 lead with five goals from five different players – Nick Riccardi, Zach DeBottis, Brad Williams, Ryan Waldron and Ray Scarlata.
Forced into immediate catch-up mode, F-M couldn’t make up much ground the rest of the half, and trailed 7-3 at intermission.
For a brief moment in the third quarter, the Hornets had to like its chances of catching up, having moved within three, 8-5. One more goal may have caused serious concern on the C-NS side.
But when DeBottis converted with 1:18 left in the third quarter, all the momentum went back to the Northstars, who proceeded to go on another 5-0 run that decided the outcome.
No Hornets player scored more than once, with single goals going to Tyler Papa (who had two assists), Erik Badger, Donovan Welsh, Luke Hamel, Griffin Cicci and Dan Burnam. Ryan Boshart played most of the game in goal, and recorded 11 saves as DeBottis (four goals, Riccardi and Williams (three goals each) led the C-NS charge.
