No matter how bad it got when the Christian Brothers Academy boys lacrosse team lost, 15-7, at Skaneateles on May 11, it knew that things would matter more if the two sides would have a rematch in the Section III Class C playoffs.
And that’s exactly what’s going to happen, with the no. 5 seed Brothers going back to Hyatt Stadium to face the no. 4 seed Lakers in the sectional quarterfinals Tuesday night after last Saturday’s opening-round games where CBA dusted off no. 12 seed Lowville 21-2 and Skaneateles handled no. 13 seed Holland Patent 23-3.
For its part, the Brothers took its time against Lowville, only leading 8-2 at halftime before putting away the Red Raiders with a 9-0 third-quarter blitz. Alex Calkins and Ben McCreary each scored four times, Calkins adding two assists as Sam Martin got five assists to go with his pair of tallies.
Patrick O’Brien got the three-goal hat trick, while Lincoln McGarrity managed two goals and two assists. Augie Bonacci had a goal and two assists.
East Syracuse Minoa played twice in the last week of the regular season, first losing, 15-11, at home to Cortland last Monday night at Spartan Stadium. Having lost, 12-9, to the Purple Tigers a month earlier, ESM thought home-field advantage would turn things around.
It did not, though, as Cortland proved just a bit more productive at each point in the game, both during a quiet first half and a faster-paced second half as Joe Piedigrossi led the Purple Tigers by netting a career-best eight goals. Chris Dovi and Brandon Ludwig each had two goals and three assists.
Meanwhile, ESM had no one who would get close to Piedigrossi’s totals, though Connor Smith scored four times. Nate Sturick and Derrek Madonna each had two goals and one assist, with Nate Jacobs also finding the net twice. Mark Willette had the other goal as Luke Rosaschi and Joe Moore gained single assists.
Two nights later, the regular season ended against Fulton, and ESM, with a big mid-game surge, defeated the Red Raiders 12-6.
The score was 2-2 going into the second quarter, but over the course of the next two periods the Spartans’ attack started to click, outscoring Fulton 9-3 to build its winning margin and, more importantly, spreading the production around.
Smith led with three goals and two assists, while Sturick and Alex Regan had two goals apiece. Rosaschi had one goal and one assist, with single tallies also going to Jacobs, Chad Temple, Anthony Wheaton and Derrek Madonna. Andrew Steigerwald was superb in the net all night, stopping 18 of the 24 shots he faced.
Those wins got the Spartans to the sectional Class B playoffs with a 7-9 mark, and a solid power ranking meant a no. 5 seed in the 11-team bracket and a spot in Tuesday’s quarterfinal against no. 4 seed New Hartford.
Whoever wins that Spartan clash is likely to have Jamesville-DeWitt waiting for them in Thursday’s Class B semifinal at Central Square.
As expected, J-D got the top seed and, with its first-round bye, awaited last Saturday’s opening-round game, where no. 9 seed Fulton edged no. 8 seed Whitesboro 12-11, setting up a Red Rams-Red Raiders quarterfinal.
