In terms of seeds for the boys lacrosse Section III Class A playoffs, Baldwinsville might hold the top spot – but it’s Fayetteville-Manlius holding the advantage of having swept the Bees in their two regular-season clashes.
Having already topped B’ville 12-8 on April 20, the Hornets did so again on Wednesday night, prevailing 9-8 after building a four-goal advantage in the third quarter.
“We’re still waiting to put 48 minutes together, but we still found a way to hang on,” said F-M head coach Chris Kenneally.
Half of F-M’s 16 games this spring have been decided by a single goal, and the last three had gone to overtime (two of them won by the Hornets) before B’ville came to town.
Still, the formula to solving B’ville was something F-M already knew. It started in the face-off circle, where Zak VanValkenburgh had dominated in the first meeting with the Bees.
But VanValkenburgh was out with a torn ACL suffered a week earlier in the Hornets’ OT win over West Genesee, so Tommy Ryu took over those duties in the Center X – and helped F-M get 15 of 20 face-offs on this night.
“Tommy did a great job,” said Kenneally. “He’s a little guy, but he’s got the heart of a warrior.”
Ryu, for his part, said that he learned from VanValkenburgh the keys to cradling and clamping the ball in order to gain possession, and his teammates took it from there.
Back-to-back goals by Dan Burnam late in the first quarter broke a 2-2 tie. Meanwhile, Joe Avellino, Greg Zogby, Owen Penoyer and the rest of the Hornets’ defense bottled up B’ville’s potent front line, having to do more work since long-stick midfielder Brett Barlow was out with an injury.
“We’re communicating very well,” said Avellino of his defense’s work, which included a stellar performance by goalie Ryan Boshart, who picked up 17 saves.
In fact, the Bees managed just two total goals in the second and third periods. Burnam and James Rettinger connected on goals to stretch F-M’s lead to 8-4 as the fourth quarter got away.
The Hornets would need that cushion. B’ville’s attack roared to life early in the fourth quarter with goals by Ryan Gebhardt and Matt Dickman, which made Mac Fish’s goal with 4:59 left even more crucial.
Right to the end, it stayed tense. Charlie Bertrand cut it to 9-7 a minute after Fish scored, and B’ville maintained the pressure until Connor Smith found the net with 27 seconds to play, just after Boshart made his best save of the night.
Naturally, it came down to Ryu winning one more face-off – which he did, allowing the Hornets to run out the remaining clock and take much more momentum into the sectional playoffs.
“It’s good to know that we can compete with every team in the (section)”, said Ryu.
In the end, just seven teams qualified for the sectional tournament, so B’ville, with the top seed, got a bye straight into the semifinals.
But F-M, with the no. 2 seed, will have to beat no. 7 seed Utica Proctor Tuesday if it wanted a likely semifinal with no. 3 seed West Genesee next Thursday at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium. It all leads to the May 28 final at the Carrier Dome.
The F-M girls lacrosse team is also playoff-bound following an up-and-down regular season of its own, though it was capped last Tuesday by a 15-5 victory over the Auburn Maroons.
It wasn’t an immediate runaway, the state no. 18-ranked Hornets only leading 7-3 at halftime, but F-M wore Auburn down with a solid attack that included five goals from Mary Trop and three goals from Sydney DeGirolamo.
Jane Cote scored twice, with Katie Shanley and Allison Macrae each getting a goal and two assists. Gemma Addonizio and Keara Shanley both had one goal and one assist, while Jamison Seabury earned the other goal.
On Tuesday night, no. 4 seed F-M hosts no. 5 seed Baldwinsville in the opening round of the Class A girls lacrosse sectional tournament, with the winner advancing to face top seed CBA in next Thursday’s semifinal at East Syracuse Minoa Stadium. The final is May 31 at 4 p.m., also at the Dome.
