A season just might have turned on a friendly pipe in a decidedly unfriendly setting.
By the slim margin of a shot striking the goal post rather than crashing into the net, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys lacrosse team held off West Genesee 9-8 in the latest clash of classic rivals Friday night at Mike Messere Field.
Having fought back from a 6-4 halftime deficit to lead 9-7 in the fourth quarter, F-M nearly saw that advantage vanish, angry that a clock hadn’t started a few moments before it did and then seeing Kevin Sheehan score with 40.3 seconds left to trim the margin to one.
What’s more, a penalty gave WG a man advantage, and it won the ensuing face-off to set up a final shot. Working it around, the Wildcats set up Spencer McNamara open at the point as he took aim at Hornets goalie Ryan Boshart, who had made 13 saves to that point in the game.
McNamara’s hard shot did elude Boshart – but did not elude the post, crashing off it as a scramble for the ball ensued and the clock ran out, triggering a hearty F-M celebration of its most important win of the season.
It sure didn’t start well. F-M had less than 20 seconds of possession and just one shot in the first eight minutes while falling behind, 3-0, triggering a time-out. That seemed to work as Dan Burnam got the Hornets on the board seconds later and a Luke Hamel hit back-to-back goals early in the second quarter.
James Rettinger’s goal briefly put F-M up, 4-3, and while the Wildcats regained control with a second 3-0 run that closed the half, it then would go more than 16 minutes before it found the net again.
Brett Barlow, the long-stick midfielder, joined defenders Tommy Angelicola, Owen Penoyer, Greg Zogby and Joe Avellino in slowing the Wildcats down, and Boshart was sensational in the second half, recording most of his saves in those last two periods.
Meanwhile, F-M scored four unanswered goals in the third quarter from four different players – Burnam, Mac Fish, Tyler Papa and Donovan Welsh, in that order. And it had a great chance to put it away when, midway through the final period and up 8-7, WG was whistled for a two-minute penalty for an illegal body check.
Try as it could, all the Hornets could manage was Ryan Cicci’s goal with 4:47 left. As it turned out, that was the game-winner, but only after the Hornets sweated out the last minute and got that friendly pipe at the wire.
F-M went to Camillus with more confidence than it had felt all season, thanks to a three-game win streak that had culminated last Wednesday with a strong all-around effort at Baldwinsville, where the Hornets defeated the Bees 12-8.
B’ville was undefeated going into the week, but had lost 11-8 to West Genesee two days before facing F-M, and was bent on bouncing back. That it didn’t do so was a tribute to several factors working in the Hornets’ favor.
First, B’ville simply could not get a draw against F-M’s Zach Van Valkenburgh, who managed to snag 17 of the 21 face-offs throughout the game.
Another problem for the Bees was that the Hornets were so well-balanced, tha t B’ville could not figure out which player to contain – which was exactly the point.
The Hornets had seven different goal-scorers, but none had more than the two put up by Fish, Cicci, Welsh, Rettinger and Tommy Ryu.
Feeding all of them, Burnam had a career-best five assists, while Hamel and Papa each got one goal and one assist. At the same time, F-M’s defense prevented any kind of sustained Bees run, Boshart finishing with nine saves.
All of those missed face-offs eventually took a toll as B’ville, only trailing 8-7 with one period left, saw the game slip away despite Charlie Bertrand leading both sides with three goals and Ryan Gebhardt adding two goals and two assists. F-M overcame 13 saves by Bees goalie Riley Smith.
