With the prospect of a frustrating, disappointing season staring right at them, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys lacrosse team showed its resilience and delivered a victory very few outside of its circle expected.
Dylan Taylor-Wolford’s goal in overtime capped an inspired performance by the Hornets in Tuesday night’s game at West Genesee, where the Hornets, mired with a 5-8 record, rose up and stunned the 11-1 Wildcats by a score of 8-7.
All season long, F-M had played every opponent close, but rarely prevailed. Of the eight defeats that preceded the trip to West Genesee, the most lopsided was by four goals – to the Wildcats, by an 8-4 margin, in their first encounter on April 7.
Meanwhile, in rising to as high as no. 2 in the state Class A rankings, WG had taken a lone defeat, to Cazenovia on April 27, but then had routed Baldwinsville (16-5) and Syracuse (16-8), reestablishing itself as the Class A favorites.
Given all this, when the two long-time antagonists got underway again and played to a 3-3 first-quarter tie, no one on WG’s side was concerned that much. Even a 5-5 halftime tie didn’t create a great amount of concern.
But as a low-scoring second half wore on, F-M was getting more opportunities than the Wildcats, and while not converting many of them against goalie Nick O’Neill (who made 12 saves), the Hornets kept the ball in WG’s end, and stayed patient.
Just as important was the way F-M’s man-to-man defense was smothering the Wildcats’ attack. Jeff Martin, James Farrell, Owen Penoyer and Jacob Okun took away passing and running lanes, and kept things tight for the rest of regulation, with help from Goalie Matt Charlamb and his nine saves.
And when the fourth-quarter horn sounded, the game was still tied, 7-7. Then, in the OT period, F-M managed to grab the ball, work into a scoring situation – and saw Taylor-Wolford, who already had two goals, beat O’Neill for a hat trick and the game-winner.
It was Donovan Welsh, with two goals and two assists, earning the most points on the Hornets’ side. Erik Badger also scored twice, with Tyler Papa getting a goal and assists from Mac Fish and Dan Burman.
On WG’s side, David Procopio and Matt McDonald led with two goals apiece, while Mike Fletcher had a goal and two assists. Tyler Shoults added one goal and one assist as Ryan McDonald added a goal and Nick Cunningham added an assist.
Now the whole key for the Hornets was not to squander all of this momentum. Hosting Marcellus on Saturday afternoon, F-M nearly its doubled its production from the West Genesee game and pulled away to beat the Mustangs 14-9.
They were tied, 3-3, through one period, but the Hornets broke out by outscoring Marcellus 6-2 in the second quarter and withstanding all of the Mustangs’ late pushes, led by Papa, who had four goals and one assist, and Taylor-Wolford, who contributed two goals and three assists.
Welsh and Fish also had two-goal outings, with Welsh picking up a pair of assists. Burnam earned one goal and one assist as Badger, Griffin Cicci and Luke Hamel also found the net. Charlamb again proved quite busy in the net, earning 18 saves.
F-M gets a big test again on Monday when Cazenovia, no. 3 in the state Class C rankings and sporting an 11-game win streak, paid a visit, the regular-season finale for both sides.
