Ever since he took over as Christian Brothers Academy’s boys lacrosse coach, Ric Beardsley had fashioned a unit fully capable of lighting up the board, but just as capable of surrendering plenty of goals to the other side.
This had haunted the Brothers for the better part of two seasons, but now, with a chance to reach the Section III Class C championship game at the Carrier Dome, CBA had a chance to answer those defensive critics in the most emphatic way possible.
It all hinged on Saturday night’s semifinal between the no. 3 seed Brothers and no. 2 seed Westhill at East Syracuse Minoa Stadium, the third time these two state-ranked sides had met this spring, with the first two games split and the road team prevailing on each occasion.
The third and final encounter carried the most meaning, and though the Brothers fought to the last seconds, it could not topple the Warriors, who prevailed 11-10 and reached its first-ever sectional final against Cazenovia.
To some degree, CBA had already proven it could stop someone when it wasn’t expected, because that was how the Brothers turned back no. 6 seed LaFayette 15-5 in last Wednesday night’s Class C quarterfinal at Alibrandi Stadium.
Even though CBA had home-field advantage and the higher seed, LaFayette had run all over the Brothers’ defenses and prevailed 17-13 in their last encounter on May 2.
More than anything else, the Brothers’ work on this day centered around stifling that Lancers attack – and it did so, right from the opening face-off, the back line of Lynch Raby, Nick Thurlow and Tanner Hall forcing turnovers and getting extra possessions that translated into a quick 4-1 lead.
Then, instead of tailing off, CBA’s defense got better, limiting LaFayette to one goal in the second period and shutting them out in the third quarter, which more than made up for the Brothers’ mid-game struggles on the other end. Matt Vavonese, with 15 saves, anchored the back line.
CBA then pulled away as Alex Calkins, with four goals and three assists, and Zach Taylor, with three goals and three assists, led the offense. Ben McCreary also scored three times, contributing a single assist, while Lincoln McGarrity and Jack Jeschke each had two goals and one assist. Jace Whelan earned the other goal.
When it came to the semifinal against Westhill, the Brothers’ challenge lay in trying to guess which star would hurt them. In this instance, CBA put a lot of its energy into containing Casey Rogers, and Rogers would not get a point.
However, that left room for Ryan Zimmerman, who would burn the Brothers throughout the game, starting with two goals and two assists in the first quarter amid an exchange of goals that left the Warriors in front, 4-3.
Early in the second period, Westhill threatened to get away, putting CBA in a 7-3 deficit, but McGarrity and Sam Martin answered with goals before Mark Purcell, who would score three times, converted with 7.2 seconds left in the half.
Trailing 8-5 at the break, CBA’s defense rose up again, blanking the Warriors in the third quarter, which meant that goals from Whalen and McCreary cut the margin to one, 8-7, with one period left.
Again, Zimmerman took over in the fourth quarter. He assisted on one goal and scored two others, the last of them coming with 5:30 left that answered McGarrity’s tally and made it 11-8.
From there, the Warriors attempted to run out the remaining clock, and it almost did so. But with less than two minutes left, the pressuring Brothers forced a turnover and set up a wild ending.
Taylor found the net with 1:22 left, and in doing so took a hard hit, leading to a one-minute penalty. Getting the ball back, the Brothers pushed again, and it was Whalen getting the goal with 48.6 seconds to play, again cutting Westhill’s margin to one.
The Warriors won the ensuing face-off and called a time-out, but then turned it over in the waning seconds, enough time for the Brothers to fling it downfield and give Taylor a chance at a tying goal from a tough angle, but he flung it wide as the horn sounded.
