In order to have a winning record in the 2015 regular season, the Cazenovia boys soccer team needed to win Thursday at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill.
Cazenovia entered that game with a 7-7-1 mark because it could not quite pull off a shocker in last Tuesday night’s visit to Hyatt Stadium, where it lost, 2-0, to defending Section III Class B champion Skaneateles.
That game continued the trend of Cazenovia ending up on the wrong side of the ledger in its Laker duels with Skaneateles, which included three defeats in 2014 (including the sectional final) and this season’s first meeting, a 3-2 thriller won by those other Lakers at the Sean Googin Sports Complex on Sept. 23.
The first half of this edition featured strong defense on both sides, and the game remained 0-0. Then, less than 10 minutes into the second half, a Cazenovia foul inside the 18-yard box gave Skaneateles a penalty kick that Jack Bailey converted.
For the rest of the game, Cazenovia did everything it could to pull even, but got thwarted, and Skaneateles sealed the outcome with Matt Neumann’s header, assisted by Luke Palmer, that found the net with 40 seconds left.
Then the Lakers went to VVS, and fought hard for a 1-0 victory over the Red Devils that, indeed, produced a winning mark.
John Williams’ first-half goal, assisted by Adam Race, was all that the Lakers could produce, but that proved enough. A solid Cazenovia defense protected the margin, Tom Bragg recording five saves for the shutout.
The Lakers’ 8-7-1 record meant that it would hold the no. 7 seed for the Section III Class B playoffs. Since just nine teams were in the tournament, the Lakers would go straight to the quarterfinals – and to a showdown with no. 2 seed Westhill, whom it played to a 2-2 draw earlier this month. The winner meets Skaneateles or Holland Patent in the semifinals.
Chittenango, who will miss the sectional Class A playoffs, met Homer last Monday night and took a 2-1 defeat to the Trojans to see its record fall to 3-10-1.
A first-half goal allowed the Bears to stay even with Homer, 1-1, going into the break. But the Trojans’ Martin Tozser, who scored in the first half, returned to net a second goal in the second half, and that made the difference, as did Lucian St. John’s nine saves that overcame Chittenango’s possession advantage.
Against Phoenix two days later, the Bears lost again, 4-1, watching the Firebirds clinch its first-ever sectional playoff berth thanks to a first-half barrage of four goals, two of which were scored by Zach Schlachter as Kyle Demo earned three assists. Eli Kim had Chittenango’s lone tally in the second half, assisted by Ryan Pitt. Pynn had four saves.
Then Chittenango visited Jordan-Elbridge on Thursday night. Playing for the third time in four days, the Bears broke out in a big way, ripping the Eagles 6-2.
Having built a 3-0 halftime lead, Chittenango doubled that production in the second half, seeing six different players score goals. Seamus St. Ledger had two assists to go with his lone tally, with Tim Ryder, Rafael Silva, Andrew Larsson, Dylan Davie and Trey Clakeley also finding the net. Seth Spurgeon joined Larsson in the assist column.
