For many of those in the Cazenovia community that communally experienced the football team’s state Class B championship, it brought back memories of the first boys Lakers team to earn a state title – which happened in ice hockey four years earlier.

So it only figured that, three days after the football Lakers made history in the Carrier Dome, a few of them, including Dustin Hammond and Brenden Whalen, would find themselves back at work with the ice hockey Lakers, in search of something just as special.

Judging by its play in the opening week of the season, it’s not completely far-fetched.

Cazenovia’s 2015-16 ice hockey campaign began last Wednesday night at the Morrisville State IcePlex, where it broke open a close game against Ontario Bay and moved on to defeat the Storm 6-1.

A quiet first period saw the Lakers move out in front, 1-0. Ontario Bay tied it, 1-1, early in the second, only to have Adam Race answer with a goal just two minutes later, giving Cazenovia the lead for good.

Midway through the period, Race tacked on a second goal, making it 3-1, and it stayed that way until the final period, when Colin McGaugh found the net with 10:32 remaining. Race returned to complete his hat trick with six minutes left , and Jake Kumiega tacked on a last-second goal.

The level of competition would pick up when the Lakers went to Baldwinsville’s Bobby Conklin Memorial Tournament. That started on Friday night at Greater B’ville Ice Arena in Lysander, when Cazenovia trailed Fulton after two periods, but then tore down the stretch to turn a defeat into a 5-2 victory.

Fulton had routed defending Section III Division II champion CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt 5-1 earlier in the week, and through two periods its defense was containing Cazenovia, too, as the Lakers trailed by a 2-1 margin.

But Cazenovia got even less than a minute into the third period, and that ignited an all-out rush that, by the time the final 15 minutes was over, had produced four unanswered goals, the attack ignited by Graham Demo, who had three assists to go with his lone goal.

Five different Lakers found the net, with Race getting a goal and two assists. Demo, Jake Lewis, R.J. Smith and Matt McGaugh had the other goals, with Jake Stowell, Nate Morgan and Jake Bookbinder earning one assist apiece.

Now the Lakers turned its attention to Saturday’s Conklin Tournament final against the Syracuse Cougars, who blanked host Baldwinsville 4-0 in the other opening-round game, avenging a 6-2 defeat to those same Bees in last February’s sectional Division I final.

This time around, Cazenovia couldn’t come back, taking a 5-3 defeat to the Cougars. The Lakers didn’t get on the board until the second period, when it trailed, 2-0, and every time it made a push, Syracuse had an answer.

Race and Colin McGaugh both scored, with Lewis, Smith, Stowell and Whalen each getting credit for an assist. Cameron Fry recorded 21 saves in the net, with Syracuse seeing Matt Eccles score twice and Philip Zollo get a goal and two assists.

At 2-1 on the season, Cazenovia is home again on Wednesday night, facing Whitesboro, before playing Fayetteville-Manlius Friday at the Cicero Twin Rinks.