Game after game, the challenges accumulate for the Fayetteville-Manlius boys lacrosse team, which if nothing else guarantees that, once the Section III Class A playoffs get underway, it can face any sort of situation.
Coming off a May 6 defeat to Jamesville-DeWitt, the Hornets, no. 12 in the state Class A rankings, visited Liverpool last Tuesday night, the same team it handily beat 20-6 on April 20. However, the rematch was quite different as Nick Papa had to score in the last minute of the fourth quarter to help F-M edge the Warriors 7-6.
Mostly, it was the Hornets’ defense, that won this game. Liverpool had battled its way to a 5-4 halftime lead, but it did not get on the board in the third quarter as B F-M’s back line made several key stops.
Despite this, and the fact that Zak Van Valkenburgh and Brett Barlow won 12 of 15 face-offs between them, the Hornets could only tie it, 5-5, leading to a fourth quarter where both sides added a single goal, adding to the tension.
Not until Papa, taking a pass from Donovan Welsh, put a shot past Liverpool goalie Cole Zaferikas in the final minute, and F-M goalie Ryan Boshart had made a last-second stop to avoid overtime,
When Papa scored, he was the seventh different Hornets player to find the net, with Welsh, Luke Burnam, Mac Fish, James Rettinger, Ryan Cicci and Luke Hamel getting the other goals. Burnam had two assists and Tom Angelicola added an assist as Boshart got eight saves, four less than Zaferikas.
What this game should have done was alert F-M to the danger of taking any league opponent lightly. Instead, when the Hornets got back home Thursday night, it got beaten, 10-8, by Cicero-North Syracuse.
This wasn’t a complete surprise, for two reasons. First, C-NS had played the Hornets close back on April 25 at Bragman Stadium, though F-M won that game, 8-5. Second, the Northstars had just come off nearly winning at West Genesee two nights earlier, that narrow 8-7 defeat proving more of a boost than anyone could imagine.
That started to manifest itself in the second quarter, when the Northstars broke out of a 3-3 tie by holding the Hornets to one goal in that period. Though the pace would pick up again, C-NS took a 9-7 lead to the fourth quarter, where its defense again stepped up, making all of the crucial stops down the stretch.
Just as with Liverpool, no single F-M player put a big scare into the C-NS defense, Welsh held to one goal as Burnam and Brett Barlow each scored twice. Fish had one goal and two assists, with Papa and Hamel also getting goals and Tommy Ryu adding an assist.
Josh Pickard, with two goals and two assists, led a well-balanced Northstars attack. Tom Flynn and Austin VanDewalker each had two goals and one assist, with Justin Griffith and Brody Guido both getting one goal and one assist. Brian Rowe and Josh Brazell had the other goals.
