Now it’s safe to put the “dynasty” label on the Cazenovia boys lacrosse team.
That’s what four consecutive Section III Class C championships, and five in the last six years, will do, the Lakers claiming its latest prize with a hard-fought 11-9 victory over LaFayette in Saturday night’s sectional final at the Carrier Dome.
Once more, Cazenovia could thank Cole Willard. On the same turf where he scored the overtime game-winner in the 2015 sectional final against Westhill, Willard’s back-to-back goals late in the fourth quarter finally subdued the Lancers’ valiant challenge.
“(If you) put the ball in his stick, usually good things happen,” said Lakers head coach Jim Longo.
Willard said that he once didn’t like playing in the Dome, but added that he’s never lost a game there, either, whether in lacrosse or with Cazenovia’s 2015 state Class B championship team.
And he wouldn’t lose here, either, though certainly concern rose among Cazenovia partisans when Devon Buckshot’s goal with 5:17 left pulled LaFayette even, 9-9.
“I had to make something happen,” said Willard.
That tie lasted all of 23 seconds. Brice Basic won the ensuing face-off, and the ball swung to White, who found Willard – and the senior, who hadn’t scored since the first quarter, put it past Lancers goalie Nate Nicholas.
A LaFayette turnover allowed the Lakers to run clock. When the Lancers double-teamed Willard in the left corner, he sped past them on a solo break to the net and put home the clinching goal with 1:03 left.
Even though Cazenovia had won its two sectional playoff games (over Tully and Skaneateles) by comfortable margins and LaFayette had required overtime to get past Westhill and Homer in 12-11 decisions, the Lakers remembered the narrow 14-13 win over the Lancers back on April 7 and expected another tense battle – which it got.
Cazenovia continued its habit of uneven starts, even after Willard scored 1:11 into the game. LaFayette, increasing the tempo, used goals by Buckshot, Jordyn Marchiano and Ryan Agedal to charge into a 3-2 lead by the end of the first quarter.
It took all of 20 seconds in the second period for Thomas Bragg to tie it and three more minutes for Jake Stowell to put Cazenovia back in front, but despite dominating possession time, the Lakers turned it over and watched Marchiano convert it into a short-handed goal with 4:17 left in the half that tied it, 4-4.
Angered by this, Cazenovia answered with two goals 45 seconds apart – one by long-stick midfielder T.J. Connellan on a charge up the middle, the other by Jake Lewis off a feed from White, who would finish with four assists.
Even when Marchiano took advantage of a Brenden Whalen turnover to net his third goal, the Lakers worked down the clock until John Williams, assisted by Stowell, converted with 11.6 seconds left to stretch Cazenovia’s lead to 7-5 at the break.
Again, the Lakers had the ball for most of the third quarter. And though it got just one goal, from Stowell, Longo said the long possessions were valuable because it kept a team as skilled as LaFayette from getting too many chances of its own.
Still, Marchiano converted for a fourth time in that third period, and Roman Reiss added a goal, meaning that Cazenovia clung to an 8-7 edge with one quarter left.
After Lewis netted his second goal to make it 9-7, LaFayette still wouldn’t go away. Instead, Ian Evans scored, a man-up, and Buckshot tied it, though all that did was clear the stage for Willard and his Laker teammates to deliver in the clutch.
With LaFayette put away, attention turned toward trying for a third state Class C championship. That quest begins Wednesday against Canton (Section X) at 7 p.m. at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, with the winner going to Saturday’s regional final at Vestal – the same venue where Cazenovia lost, 9-8, to Cold Spring Harbor in last June’s state title game.
