Post-season games are important, and a Section III Class A semifinal is particularly important, even for someone so used to the stage as the West Genesee boys lacrosse team.
Yet something beyond the stakes of yet another berth in yet another championship game drove the top-seeded Wildcats when it beat no. 5 seed Cicero-North Syracuse 13-3 in Saturday night’s semifinal at Bragman Stadium.
When the final whistle sounded, Mike Messere, the coaching legend who has guided WG’s program to 15 state championships had reached 800 victories for his Hall of Fame career.
Since this is Messere’s 40th season at the Wildcats’ helm, this means he has averaged 20 wins per season, while sending hundreds of players to college lacrosse and launching the careers of dozens of coaches, too. It only figured that, to get win no. 800, Messere had to beat a C-NS team coached by one of his former players, Bill Aldrich.
The Northstars had lost to WG 10-4 back on April 24, but had, in the previous sectional round, avenged a regular-season defeat to defending sectional champion Fayetteville-Manlius in an impressive 14-6 manner, and now had a chance to do the same against the Wildcats- but never got close.
Sharp and precise from the outset, the Wildcats swarmed the C-NS net, and it soon was apparent that Northstars goalie Zach Sheridan would need a career performance to keep the game from getting out of hand early.
Sheridan did make 13 first-half saves (17 overall), but on several occasions the shots he blocked fell into the sticks of other WG players, who converted the rebounds.
Trailing 4-1 after one period, C-NS tried to make inroads, but after goals by Ray Scarlata, Brad Williams and Brian Rowe, it could not get a single goal in the game’s last 29-plus minutes, constantly stymied by WG’s fierce man-to-man defense, anchored by goalie Nick O’Neill, who had 10 saves.
Pulling away in the second half, the Wildcats mostly depended on the likes of Tyler Shoults, who had four goals, and David Procopio, who had three goals and one assist.
Conor Bartlett helped out by scoring twice, while Mike Fletcher had a goal and two assists. Derek Farrell and Ryan McDonald had the other goals as Nick Mellen, aside from his defensive duties shutting down the likes of Zach DeBottis, contributed an assist, as did Ryan Smith.
With Messere’s 800th win in the books, attention could now go back to the field – and to Wednesday night’s sectional Class A final at the Carrier Dome between WG and no. 2 seed Auburn, which will face off at 6 p.m.
The Maroons, led by Danny Entenmann’s seven goals and four assists, knocked out no. 3 seed Syracuse 14-6 in the other semifinal game. Auburn is seeking its first sectional since 2001 and has not played in the title game since 2008, but will have to reverse two regular-season defeats to the Wildcats, by margins of 12-8 (on April 10) and 11-9 (on May 12).
