A month may have brought changes in the Liverpool boys lacrosse team, but it certainly has changed things for the side it conquered to win the Section III Class A title a year ago.
West Genesee dominated Liverpool, 14-4, last Tuesday night at Wildcat Stadium in Camillus, easily gaining a measure of revenge after losing an 7-4 decision to the Warriors at LHS Stadium on April 4.
Liverpool coach Mike Felice tipped his cap to Messere’s squad. “(The) bottom line is we got outworked and outplayed,” Felice said. “(West Genesee) came to play. When you show up in a game like that not working hard, that’s going to be the outcome.”
WG never trailed, scoring the game’s first two goals and leading 4-1 after the first quarter. The hosts started to pull away in the second quarter, taking a 7-2 edge to halftime. From there, it was quiet until WG poured it on in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Warriors, 6-1.
Justin Renk paced the Warriors with two goals. Kendall Keahey and Jamie Kuppel scored one goal apiece. Brady Hoose led a balanced Wildcats scoring attack, the senior attacker earning three goals and four assists. Ryan St. Croix matched Hoose with three goals. The hosts got two goals each from Zach Anderson and Dan Ginestro.
Also, WG got single markers from Garrett Waldron, Ted Glesener, and Mark Niechcial. Anderson and Tom Pritchard had two assists each. Wildcat goalie Matt Koziol made four saves. Liverpool netminder Dominick Madonna turned aside 10 shots.
Even with the loss, Felice said he wasn’t concerned that his team is headed in the wrong direction.
“We’re not worried about an outcome like this,” Felice said. “We’re not at rock bottom at all. It’s just a little blip in the road.”
Liverpool was back home Thursday night to face Rome Free Academy, and indeed showed no reason for panic, steadily pulling away for a 16-5 victory over the Black Knights.
A 4-0 second-quarter shutout helped the Warriors get away from RFA as it scored four times in each quarter, a steady effort on the offensive end.
Kuppel led with four goals and one assist. Renk and Keahey both got three-goal hat tricks, with Dom Castiglia and Harry Sardella both getting two goals and one assist. Peter Sterio and Antonio Rey contributed single tallies.
This led to Saturday’s game at Baldwinsville, a chance to avenge an April 9 overtime defeat to the Warriors. But once again Liverpool struggled down the stretch, and this time the Warriors prevailed in regulation by a 10-6 margin.
Twice in the first half, Liverpool had two-goal leads, only to see B’ville rally both times and move out in front, 6-4, by the time they reached the break. The Warriors cut the margin to 7-6, but in the fourth quarter it got shut out as B’ville pulled away, aided by a strong effort in goal from Parker Ferrigan, who had 18 saves.
Again, Kuppel led the Warriors’ attack, scoring three times, while Flood had two goals. Sardella and Castiglia earned the other goals. Steve Petrelli and Zach Bulak paced B’ville, each of them finishing with four goals and one assist.
While all this was going on, Cicero-North Syraucse only played once, on Friday night, dominating Central Square 15-1 in a game cut short by bad weather.
Before the lightning sent the teams off the field in the second half, the Northstars had roared its way to a 12-1 halftime lead on the Red Hawks, adding to it until the conditions got too dangerous.
Zach Debottis, with five goals, led the C-NS attack. Tyler Griffo had three goals and one assist, with Tom Koster adding two goals and two assists. Tyler Heldt and Ryan Waldron each got one goal and one assist as Eric Sauer, Brandon Townsend and Brad Williams also scored.
