The second regular-season encounter between the Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse boys lacrosse teams last Thursday night at Bragman Stadium carried much more weight than the April 18 overtime encounter won by the Warriors because of the way both teams had improved in the ensuing three weeks.
Yet it carried the same result – Liverpool on top, and this time not needing to go beyond regulation as a few well-timed scoring spurts made the difference in a 12-9 victory.
Rain affected play at the outset, as both teams had difficulty adjusting to the wet conditions and it took more than seven minutes for C-NS to break the deadlock thanks to Brian Rowe’s goal.
But the Warriors answered with three goals in less than 90 seconds, two of them by Dylan Wallace, and though Justin Griffith scored with less than a second to play in the third period to cut the Northstars’ deficit to 3-2, Liverpool never trailed again.
During a second-quarter exchange, the Warriors stretched its margin to two on four occasions, with C-NS answering three times. Thus, Liverpool was up 7-5 at halftime, and it doubled that margin early in the third period before the Northstars countered with two goals of it sown.
If the game had a turning point, it came early in the fourth quarter. Down 9-7, and trying to clear the ball out of its own end, C-NS instead turned it over and Wallace turned it into his third goal of the night. Less than three minutes later, Cabry Hildmann converted to make it 11-7.
C-NS never really recovered, despite Rowe’s three-goal hat trick and Josh Pickard getting two goals and three assists. Tom Flynn also scored twice as Brody Guido joined Griffith in the goal-scoring column and Joel Firth got an assist. Brian Jobin recorded 15 saves.
In Liverpool’s winning effort, Dan Salamino was steady and productive, scoring three times and adding three assists. Steve Audley joined Salamino and Wallace in getting a three-goal hat trick as Kyle Caves had a goal and two assists. Hildmann got two assists. Cole Zakerikas finished with 12 saves.
Liverpool arrived at C-NS with all kinds of momentum, having followed up its April 29 overtime victory over Rochester McQuaid with an even bigger win at Baldwinsville as, by a 15-13 margin, the Warriors got even with the Bees.
These same two sides had met April 13, and B’ville won that encounter by a comfortable 14-4 margin. In the rematch, a wild first quarter featured little defense and Liverpool going up 6-5, only to have the Bees recover enough to inch into a 10-9 lead by halftime.
Here, though, the Bees went cold and the Warriors pounced, outscoring them 5-1 in a pivotal third quarter. Try as it could, B’ville could not quite catch up as Liverpool slowed down the game’s tempo in the late going and got clutch stops from Zaferikas, who made nine saves.
Audley, with three goals and four assists, led a well-balanced effort as Salamino and Hildmann also had three-goal hat tricks. Wallace and Devin Dewane had two goals apiece as Caves had a goal and two assists. Ben Root added one goal and one assist.
For B’ville, Ryan Gebhardt still scored four times, with Spencer Wirtheim getting a three-goal hat trick. Pete Fiorini had a goal and four assists and Matt Dickman got two goals and one assist.
As this was going on, C-NS was at home, pulling out a 9-8 victory over Syracuse in a game where the Northstars thought it had gained control with a 4-0 sweep through the second quarter to take a 5-2 lead to halftime.
But the Cougars fought back, pulling within one, 6-5, by the fourth quarter. Then it went back and forth until Pickard, with 2:40 left, took a pass from Rowe and fired home what proved to be the game-winner, his fourth goal of the night.
Throughout the game, Pickard and Rowe had carried the Northstars’ attack, Rowe notching four assists to go with his pair of goals. Austin VanDewalker also scored twice as Griffith earned a single goal. Assists went to Flynn, Firth and Josh Brazell.
On Syracuse’s side, Matt Eccles earned five assists, often feeding it to Connor Leonard (three goals), Sterling Claflin or Jack Kane (two goals each), but C-NS netminder Brian Jobin turned them back with 14 saves, two more than Cougars counterpart Robert Martin.
