While it has made rapid progress early this season, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls lacrosse team now knows that much more steps are required before it can threaten the top of the local Class A ranks.

West Genesee, who has stayed at that summit for most of the last 15 years, returned to F-M last Wednesday night with a new head coach (Kevin Hennigan) but the same lethal formula that, again, subdued the Hornets, leading to a 12-6 defeat.

To some degree, F-M never recovered from what happened in the game’s first five minutes. WG claimed every draw and, after an exchange of goals, rattled off three in a row to take a 4-1 lead, forcing Hornets head coach Kate Noel to take a time-out.

Even at that early moment, though, the pattern was established. By controlling the draws, the Wildcats owned most of the possession time, forcing Maggie Kelly, Grace Bang, Addie Gorgoni and the rest of F-M’s defenders to work for long stretches.

Combine that with a defense that held the Hornets without a goal for more than 17 minutes, it created a 7-3 halftime deficit. Though it never got out of hand, F-M was unable to make a sustained push and saw just two different players – Mary Trop  and Amanda Cramer – score goals, with Trop scoring four times and Cramer find the net twice.

Jane Cote had two assists, with Annie Steigerwald and Sydney DeGirolamo getting one assist apiece. Aubrey Deveau made nine saves, a number WG counterpart Mackenzie Kittell matched as Nicky Delany (three goals, one assist) and Mackenzie Baker (one goal, five assists) paced the Wildcats.

F-M could not afford to look ahead to West Genesee, though. Two nights earlier, the Hornets took on Cazenovia and needed a strong second half to put away the Lakers and prevail by an 11-7 margin.

Starting out strong, F-M saw Amanda Cramer, Kiera Shanley and Sydney DeGirolamo score in the game’s first five minutes. But an early 4-1 lead vanished when Cazenovia netted four consecutive goals, capped by Chloe Willard’s tally that gave the Lakers a 5-4 edge.

But then the Hornets’ Mary Trop found the net just before halftime. That halted Cazenovia’s momentum and tied the game, 5-5, and that carried over into the second half, where F-M blanked the Lakers until the final minutes and went on a decisive 4-0 run.

Cramer did most of that damage, finishing the night with four goals, her passes often coming from Jane Cote, who earned four assists. Trop and Kiera Shanley each scored twice, with Katie Shanley and Jamison Seabury also netting goals. Gemma Addonizio picked up a pair of assists as Aubrey Deveau and Bobbey McCarthy combined for eight saves.

The loss to West Genesee hurt a bit, but F-M showed nice recovery skills in Friday night’s game against visiting Baldwinsville – whose coach, Doug Rowe, is retiring after this season to cap a run that included the 2000 state Class A championship.

Showing no sentiment, the Hornets defeated the Bees 11-9, doing most of its damage early as it bolted  out to a 9-4 halftime lead with strong efforts from Trop, Amanda Cramer and Keara Shanley, who each finished with three-goal hat tricks.

Allison Macrae and Katie Shanley had the other goals, with DeGirolamo, Steigerwald, Jane Cote, Gemma Addonizio and Jamison Seabury earning assists. They were all needed as B’ville, led by Glory Johnson, Anna Mazurkiewicz and Peyton Fleming (two goals each) rallied late, but Deveau’s six saves helped preserve the win.

Having improved to 4-1, F-M visited Auburn Tuesday and will go to Bragman Stadium to face Cicero-North Syracuse Friday night.