Three minutes into the second quarter of Tuesday afternoon’s boys lacrosse showdown between Fayetteville-Manlius and Baldwinsville, the two sides were tied, a close contest resembling the close one the two sides had a season ago when battling for the Section III Class A championship.
By halftime, though, the Hornets had left the Bees far behind them, and would put an end to the visitors’ season-opening five-game win streak by a 17-5 margin.
As the game got underway, B’ville sat at no. 13 in the state Class A rankings, two spots ahead of the no. 15-ranked Hornets, and nothing in the early stages suggested the rout ahead.
They traded goals in the first three minutes – Luke Burnam for F-M, Brandon Mimas for B’ville – and did so again in the final seconds of the opening period as Ryan Gebhardt briefly put the Bees in front, but Tommy Ryu won the ensuing face-off and answered 11 seconds later.
As this was going on, though, F-M was winning the battles for both ground balls and face-offs, forcing B’ville to lean on its defense. Then the Hornets sent its best forwards one-on-one against the Bees’ back line, and began to take over.
Burnam’s goal 3:20 into the second quarter was the first of three in 70 seconds, with Donovan Welsh and Mac Fish converting, too. Then Welsh found the net again at the 5:16 mark to make it 6-2.
Far from done, the Hornets kept gaining face-offs and kept burning B’ville. James Rettinger scored twice late in the period, with goals in between by Welsh and Burnam, giving F-M a 10-2 edge by halftime.
Instead of turning it around in the third quarter, the Bees were shut out again, Welsh doing most of the damage as he ran his total to six goals and four assists. Burnam and Fish finished with three goals apiece.
Whenever it needed to play defense, F-M leaned on Brett Barlow, Tom Angelicola, Ben Welling and Sam Stratton to frustrate B’ville, who went without a goal for more than 27 minutes. Ryan Boshart was sharp between the pipes, too, recording 11 saves.
