For its return to the state Class B playoffs following a 13-year absence, the East Syracuse Minoa boys lacrosse team was forced to play a true road game, and handled it quite well for long stretches.
Yet it was a rough second quarter that ultimately doomed the Spartans as it fell to Section IV champion Vestal 13-9 in Wednesday’s Class B regional, played on the Golden Bears’ home field near Binghamton.
Having waited more than a decade for this opportunity, not to mention the six days following its tense sectional Class B finals win over Auburn, ESM found itself waiting again when the start was delayed by more than half an hour by lightning in the area.
Once things got underway, it went from pouring rain to sunshine in a matter of minutes. And for a while, things stayed bright for the Spartans as Derrek Madonna twice scored in the first quarter to keep the game close.
Still, Vestal was up, 3-2, with Quinn Webster scoring twice and Logan Wiland finding the net, and that merely was the prelude to what the Golden Bears would do during a decisive second quarter.
ESM was unable to get face-offs, Vestal grabbed them and put together a string of six unanswered goals, three of them in a row by Max Weist. Also, Webster completed his hat trick and J.T. Stirpe got the first and last goals of this run.
All through this surge, the Golden Bears peppered the Spartans’ net, and only the work of goalie Andrew Steigerwald kept the game from really getting away, though ESM still trailed, 9-3, going into the break.
After Webster’s fourth goal made it 10-3, the Spartans finally started to make a serious run of its own. Lance Madonna and Adam Caramanna netted goals, and when Madonna scored again and Nate Jacobs found the net late in the period, the deficit was cut to four, 11-7.
Had ESM converted on other chances before the third quarter ended, it may have got even closer. Instead, Golden Bears goalie Luke Barney kept making key stops, and Vestal countered goals in the final period by Derrek Madonna and Luke Rosachi with Webster scoring for the fifth time and Matt Thrasher adding a goal of his own.
But the Spartans battled to the final whistle, and Steigerwald, a spectacular presence in the net all season, finished with 15 saves, having already sealed his part in ESM lacrosse lore along with fellow seniors like Jacobs, Will Healy and Chad Temple.
As they depart, though, a large returning cast for 2018, including Rosaschi, Caramanna, Derrek Madonna, Lance Madonna, Devon Spencer and Dan Boland, will look to build upon this season and perhaps go further.
