In a unique pair of contests, the West Genesee boys lacrosse team found out just how far apart two programs with a string of recent championships on their respective resumes appeared, at least in the early part of the 2017 season.
The big showdown came last Saturday, when the Wildcats hosted Jamesville-DeWitt, who won the state Class B championship last spring. Now the Red Rams were in Class C, but regardless of where it was, J-D was still potent, powerful and tough to beat.
WG found this out in the course of a 13-7 defeat, one where it never led and saw that anything less than flawless lacrosse would not work against an all-around unit as strong as the Rams.
During a decisive first quarter, J-D bolted out to a 4-0 lead before Jack Howes’ goal. Ryan Archer lit the spark for the Rams as the senior attacker twice scored on aggressive moves to the net and assisted on Griffin Cook’s goal, too.
Even when Ryan Smith found the net midway through the second quarter, it came after a series of near-misses by the Wildcats, and was quickly answered. Archer hit on two more goals and found Jake Mulvihill for another, all in a span of 69 seconds, extending the Rams’ margin to 8-2 by halftime.
Briefly, WG threatened to make it interesting in the third quarter as its defense tightened and it used goals by Max Rosa and Kevin Sheehan to close the gap to 8-4. But the Wildcats were shut out the rest of the period, while Archer, Cook and Casey Platenik all scored to nearly double J-D’s margin.
Archer finished with five goals and four assists as Cook converted four times. On WG’s side, Sheehan got two goals and two assists, with Howes adding two goals and one assist. Jay Considine joined Smith and Rosa in the goal-scoring column during the fourth quarter.
Four nights earlier, WG hosted Cazenovia, who had lost 8-5 to Westhill on April 1 and still was dealing with the departure of most of its starting lineup from 2016. The Wildcats prolonged the Lakers’ difficult transition with a superb defensive effort that led to a 5-1 victory.
WG kept Cazenovia off the board most of the night. Still, the Lakers controlled the game’s tempo and didn’t let things get out of hand thanks to its own fine defense, only surrendering a single goal in each of the first three quarters.
But Cazenovia wasn’t able to get the spurt it needed, seeing Wildcats netminder Luke Staudt stop 11 of the 12 shots he faced. John Williams’ fourth-quarter tally, assisted by Alex Nowak, broke up the shutout, but WG allowed nothing else.
Ryan Sheehan scored twice, with Jay Considine and Max Rosa each getting one goal and one assist. Jack Howes and Manny Castro also scored goals, with Tom Baker picking up an assist.
It wouldn’t get easier for WG following the J-D loss, as on Thursday its biggest rival, Fayetteville-Manlius, and would then take on CBA Saturday afternoon.
