Sometimes, the fates of the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse boys lacrosse teams prove too similar, and not that comfortable.
Take last Monday’s pair of games, where the Warriors pushed hard against red-hot Fayetteville-Manlius, and the Northstars did the same at home against the Syracuse Cougars at Bragman Stadium.
Both ended in defeats, though – and both of them were by the exact same 9-7 margin, though they got there in different manners.
Liverpool had remembered how F-M clocked them 14-5 on April 7. And that was before the Hornets started to rise in the contender ranks with big back-to-back wins over Baldwinsville (on April 20) and West Genesee (on April 23).
The Warriors made sure the rematch with F-M was not a one-sided romp, but in the process could not put together a sustained scoring run, though some of it was due to great work in the net by F-M goalie Ryan Boshart, who made 15 saves.
Boshart’s Liverpool counterpart, Connor Prosser, also had 15 saves, but saw just two of his teammates, Antonio Rey and Cabry Hildmann, notch two goals apiece. Steve Audley, Jon Jerman and Dylan Wallace had the other goals as six different F-M players found the net, led by Donovan Welsh, who had two goals and one assist.
As for C-NS, the frustration against Syracuse was quite acute, given that it had beaten the Cougars in a tense 4-3 battle just seven days earlier, on April 18. The rematch had twice as much offense, but a different result.
In fact, Syracuse was up by that exact same 4-3 score at halftime, but more would follow as the Northstars rallied to tie it, 6-6, with one period left, only to go cold again down the stretch and see the Cougars go in front for good, aided by 11 saves from goalie Robert Martin.
Josh Pickard led C-NS with three goals. Nick Riccardi scored twice, while Brandon O’Brien had two assists. Nate Scarlata, Ray Scarlata and Dante Whitmire had one goal apiece as Hunter Dorgan made 10 saves, but saw John Elliott and Keison Cannon both net three goals for the victorious Cougars.
Two days later, the Northstars went to Mike Messere Field to try and avenge an 8-5 defeat to West Genesee on April 7. Yet even with the Wildcats having lost four of its previous six games, C-NS could not take advantage and lost yet another 4-3 decision.
Sound defense marked the occasion on both ends, with the Northstars kept off the scoreboard until the third quarter. With one period left, it was 4-1, but C-NS tried to make it back, seeing Riccardi score twice as Justin Griffith got the other goal and O’Brien and Drew Flack earned assists.
C-NS actually took more shots, but WG goalie Ryan Mavretish stopped 14 of 17 attempts to negate the 10 saves put up by Dorgan. Tyler Shoults got two of the Wildcats’ four goals, with Manny Castro and Conor Bartlett earning the others.
Given all this, the Northstars may not have carried high expectations into Friday’s game against F-M at Bragman Stadium. And adding to the problem was that it had lost, 12-4, to the Hornets two weeks earlier.
Yet C-NS turned it around and won, 9-8, in overtime for F-M when Drew Flack converted in the last minute of the first OT period.It was Flack’s second goal of the afternoon.
Mostly, it was Josh Pickard that hurt F-M throughout regulation, putting in five goals as Brian Rowe got four assists. Trailing 3-1 after one period, C-NS pulled even, 4-4, by halftime, and then traded goals with the Hornets throughout the second half.
Aside from Pickard and Flack, Riccardi and Nate Scarlata also earned goals, with Joel Firth getting an assist. Each of Dorgan’s 10 saves would prove important and help to overcome three-goal hat tricks from F-M’s Mac Fish and Tyler Papa, with Donovan Welsh feeding both of them thanks to his five assists.
Liverpool, on that same day, went to Baldwinsville and lost, 22-8, to the Bees, unable to overcome an overwhelming Bees attack that had beaten West Genesee and Auburn earlier in the week and didn’t’ stop here, either, as Ryan Gebhardt netted eight goals and one assist.
As a whole, the Warriors could only match Gebhardt’s total. Rogers had four of those goals, with Wallace, Rey, Ben Root and Nick Jeffries earning the other goals. Jake Piseno added an assist and Prosser picked up 11 saves.
Just 24 hours later, the Warriors got a reprieve, routing Rome Free Academy 17-5 as Rogers, with five goals and two assists, and Wallace, with four goals and four assists, led the charge. Rey added three goals as Ethan Calderwood got a goal and two assists. Hildmann, Jeffries, Dan Salamino and Mitch Virkler earned one goal apiece.
