Even before it went to the Carrier Dome and challenged Baldwinsville for the Section III Class A championship, the Fayetteville-Manlius boys lacrosse team had achieved a major landmark.
When the no. 2 seed Hornets survived no. 3 seed West Genesee’s late comeback and prevailed 10-9 in Thursday’s Class A semifinal at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, it marked the third time F-M had beaten the Wildcats this spring, something unprecedented in the long rivalry between the two powers.
Even though WG had gone through unprecedented struggles this season and fallen out of the state rankings for the first time in 38 years, it still had pushed F-M in both their regular-season meetings.
The Hornets survived those games by single-goal margins – 9-8 on April 22 in Camillus, 10-9 in overtime on May 10 when it came from behind and won it on Tyler Papa’s goal – so it had no illusions about the difficulty of trying to pull off a third win against a Wildcats side that had improved plenty since those initial encounters.
This time around, WG shut out the Hornets in the first quarter, but only led, 1-0, and when it tried to take control in the second period, twice taking two-goal leads of 3-1 and 4-2, F-M answered back and pulled even.
Though Spencer McNamara’s goal 1:17 before halftime gave the Wildcats a 5-4 edge at the break, the Hornets didn’t get rattled. Instead, it shut out WG in the third quarter and, with four straight goals, sprinted to an 8-5 lead.
Even when Tyler Shoults broke a Wildcats drought of more than 15 minutes when he converted with 9:38 left, WG still trailed, 9-6, when, thwarting F-M’s attempts to run out the clock, it used a 66-second, three-goal outburst to pull even again, 9-9.
Spencer Howes got it started with his goal with 3:21 left. Just 25 seconds later, Conor Bartlett made it 9-8, and when Ryan Smith beat Ryan Boshart for the tying goal with 2:15 to play, fans on both sides anticipated that the Wildcats were about to hand F-M yet another post-season heartbreak.
Somehow, the Hornets stomached all this, won the ensuing face-off and, 34 seconds following Smith’s tying goal, regained the lead when Papa put it past Ryan Mavretish. In the final minute, the Wildcats had a chance to force overtime, but a last-second stop by Boshart, his 17th save of the night, allowed F-M to burn the remaining clock.
Papa, Donovan Welsh, Dan Burnam and James Rettinger had two goals apiece. Luke Hamel and Ryan Cicci earned the other goals, with Luke Burnam adding an assist. McNamara and Tyler Shoults both scored twice for WG as Bartlett got a goal and three assists and Mavretish finished with 10 saves.
F-M caught a break with its no. 2 seed, for it only had to face Utica Proctor in last Tuesday’s quarterfinal, and it quickly turned into a lopsided affair that the Hornets won by a 26-0 margin.
The first quarter alone included 11 goals by F-M, and it continued from there, Luke Burnam getting five goals and one assist as Welsh had four goals and two assists, the pair heading an attack where Tyler Papa, Kyle Gilroy, Jason Coleman and Ryan Miller each scored twice, Miller adding three assists.
Ted Wells had a goal and four assists. Nick Papa got a goal and two assists as Hamel, Tommy Ryu, Tom Angelicola, Isaac Patroulis-Lessig and Matt Stone also recorded goals.
