At least through the early rounds of the Section III Class C playoffs, the Cazenovia boys lacrosse team have not run into any serious stress.
Following a 21-1 destruction of Clinton in the opening round on May 16, the top-seeded, defending sectional champion Lakers did much the same to no. 9 seed Marcellus in Wednesday’s Class C quarterfinal at the Sean Googin Sports Complex, defeating the Mustangs 15-2.
This was a last chance for Cazenovia to play on its home field, and it was in no mood to make things interesting against a Marcellus side it beat 15-4 on the Mustangs’ home turf April 23.
Throughout the first half, Cazenovia controlled the face-offs and, by doing so, controlled the game’s tempo, patiently working the ball around until it found open shots and converted.
At the same time, the Lakers’ defense, anchored by Eli Mitchell, Adam Race, Jake Shaffner, Kevin Frega and long-stick midfielder T.J. Connellan, took away anything Marcellus tried to establish. Brenden Whalen only had to make six saves, and the result was a shutout that lingered the third quarter, by which point the game was out of the Mustangs’ reach.
Derek White anchored the attack, picking up four assists to go with his three-goal hat trick. Jake Lewis found the net four times and added an assist, while Jake Stowell had three goals and one assist. Cole Willard and Alex Hunt both scored twice and got single assists as P.J. Brown managed a goal and three assists.
On Saturday at East Syracuse Minoa Stadium, Cazenovia meets its Laker rivals from Skaneateles, whom it beat twice in the regular season, in the Class C sectional semifinal. The winner would go to the Carrier Dome Wednesday night for the title game against Westhill or CBA.
Skaneateles, the no. 5 seed, pulled away from no. 12 seed Cortland 15-8 in the opening round on May 16 and then, in Wednesday’s quarterfinal, needed two overtimes to knock out no. 4 seed South Jefferson 9-8.
