If a program has waited 10 years to make a return to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association boys lacrosse tournament, what’s another 90 minutes?
Maybe that was the attitude Christian Brothers Academy adopted while waiting out the bad weather that hit in the middle of the first quarter of Wednesday night’s Class D regional game against Section IV champion Chenango Forks at Vestal High School near Binghamton.
And once things resumed, the Brothers fiddled with the Blue Devils for a while, but ultimately took charge with a second-half run that included near-perfect play on both ends as CBA prevailed by a 13-4 margin.
The six days that followed the Brothers’ tense double-overtime win over Westhill in the Section III title game gave CBA ample time to rest and refocus for a stretch where it would have to win two regional games on the road in a 72-hour span.
Chenango Forks provided the first obstacle, and then the skies turned violent after an opening sequence that included Matt Vavonese’s point-blank save on a Blue Devils shot and, seconds later, a goal from Alex Calkins that got CBA on the board.
An hour and a half later, the weather calmed down and, for a time, a double rainbow formed in the Vestal skies. More importantly, from CBA’s perspective, the delay didn’t deter its forward momentum.
Thanks to goals from Mike Matheson and Ben McCreary, the Brothers expanded its lead to 3-0. Forks absorbed those blows and pulled back within one before McCreary’s goal in the last minute of the first quarter made it 4-2, the period ending a full two hours after it started.
With no further interruptions, CBA leaned on its defense through much of the second quarter, containing the Blue Devils on most possessions. Still, Forks kept pressing and, when Sean Wiser scored with less than a minute to play in the half, it was tied, 4-4.
The Blue Devils would not score again.
It was Matheson, 18.3 seconds before intermission, who netted the game’s biggest goal. Not only did it put his team in front 5-4 at the break, it energized a CBA side which had literally taken Forks’ best shots and still had the advantage.
During the third period, CBA’s back line, led by Lynch Raby, Peyton Bowler and Greg Wells, punished the Blue Devils every time it had the ball. While that was going on, Matheson poured in his third and fourth goals, with Calkins also completing the hat trick, all of which helped the Brothers’ lead stretch to 9-4.
That dominance stretched into the fourth quarter, too. McCreary found the net twice to give him three goals overall, and help came from the likes of Augie Bonacci, Ryan McKenzie and Mike Adornato, who managed single goals as Vavonese stopped 10 of the 14 shots he faced.
