Most of the time, what takes place in the regular season is reinforced in the post-season, especially if two sides meet that had wildly divergent records.
That did not happen, though, in the Section III Class D boys lacrosse quarterfinal Saturday night at Hyatt Stadium, where Skaneateles, with a no. 3 seed and 12-4 record, was stunned at home by no. 6 seed Cazenovia 12-8.
A 6-10 record meant that Cazenovia needed to lean on its league record of 6-6 just to make the sectional tournament. One of those 10 defeats came on April 27, at Skaneateles, but it was a 13-11 game where Cazenovia nearly made it back from a five-goal deficit in the third quarter.
From that game arose a belief among the Cazenovia players that, if it got another chance against Sknaeateles, it could come out on top, and that belief did not waver even when the hosts broke a 2-2 tie early in the second quarter of the playoff rematch with three straight goals.
Trailing 5-2, Cazenovia moved in front for good with five straight goals and then added two more from Alex Nowak (his third and fourth of the night) early in the third period to take a 9-5 lead.
Stunned by this 7-0 Cazenovia outburst, Skaneateles only scored once the rest of the quarter, and Cazenovia stretched out its advantage to 12-6 in the final period and protecting that margin behind a vastly improved defense anchored by goalie R.J. Smith, who had seven saves.
Pat Hackler paced Skaneateles with three goals and two assists. John Danforth scored twice, with Reggie Buell getting a goal and two assists. Patrick Major and Matt Goetzmann also found the net as Tristan Custer earned an assist and Scott Oschner earned 11 saves.
To lead Cazenovia, Nowak finished with five goals and two assists, while Thomas Bragg had three goals and two assists. Shephard also had two assists as he and Will Khalil both scored twice, John Williams and Cole Basic adding single assists.
Before all this, the Skaneateles girls lacrosse team found out that it had the no. 2 seed for the sectional Class D playoffs, which it would start Tuesday with a quarterfinal against no. 7 seed Cazenovia after those other Lakers beat Clinton in the first round.
In its regular-season finale last Wednesday, the Lakers, winning its eighth in a row, beat Penfield (Section V) 11-5, relying on a steady defense to protect the 6-3 lead it built during the first half.
Kyla Sears, gearing up for the post-season run she missed in 2016 due to a knee injury, had five goals and four assists. Emma Goodell scored twice, with Mae McGlynn getting one goal and one assist. Riley Brogan, Olivia Navaroli and Sophie Kush had the other goals.
