Ever since the Baldwinsville boys lacrosse team took a brutal 17-5 defeat at Fayetteville-Manlius on April 18, the Bees had circled last Thursday night’s rematch at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium as a chance at some payback and to create a special memory in the team’s last regular-season home game.
However, in the process the Bees may have overlooked what came first – namely, a battle with Liverpool last Tuesday night that saw the Warriors get even in its own way, defeating B’ville by a score of 15-13.
These same two sides had met April 13, and B’ville won that encounter by a comfortable 14-4 margin. But the Warriors had improved plenty in the ensuing three weeks, and displayed that improvement to the Bees in the second half of the rematch.
A wild first quarter featured little defense and B’ville falling behind, 6-5, but it recovered 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 goalie Cole Zaferikas, who made nine saves.
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. Mike Tangredi and Cole Peters also scored, with Trangredi joining Austin Bolton and Cameron Slink in the assist column.
On Liverpool’s side, Steve Audley, with three goals and four assists, led a well-balanced effort as Dan Salamino and Cabry Hildmann also had three-goal hat tricks. Dylan Wallace and Devin Dewane had two goals apiece as Kyle Caves had a goal and two assists. Ben Root added one goal and one assist.
And after all this, B’ville had to deal with F-M, who had newfound momentum after ending state Class A no. 4-ranked West Genesee’s eight-game win streak in a 15-6 romp on the same night that the Bees lost to Liverpool.
Given what had happened in their first meeting, B’ville improved plenty and was on the brink of beating the Hornets before a rough fourth quarter for the defense led to a painful 14-12 defeat in the team’s last home game of the regular season.
With an all-out effort, B’ville made sure, at least, that this wasn’t a blowout, taking a 5-4 lead through one quarter. As the tension built over the next two periods, the Bees and Hornets traded, neither side able to get away.
However, F-M played one of its best fourth quarters of the season, scoring six times in that frame to get back in front, and spreading out its attack, too, as Luke Burnam got four goal and one assist, with Donovan Welsh adding three goals and one assist as Rettinger got two goals and two assists. Mac Fish and Teddy Wells also scored twice.
Fiorini led B’ville with his own four-goal outing, but he and Gebhardt, who had three goals, were the only Bees players to find the net more than once. Dan Fuller had one goal and one assist as Tandgredi, Bolton and Wirtheim had one goal apiece. Dickman contributed an assist.
B’ville now had three games left, all on the road, starting Tuesday at Syracuse, continuing Thursday night at West Genesee (where coaching legend Mike Messere said he would retire after the 2018 season) and then closing May 16 at Cicero-North Syracuse.
