It turned contentious late in the fourth quarter of Tuesday night’s boys lacrosse game at Bragman Stadium between Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse, with end-to-end action, plenty of heated words and a string of penalties that continued until the waning seconds.
If only the Northstars had shown that fire and spirit earlier in the game.
Without it, C-NS could only watch as the Warriors steadily built a seven-goal margin and eventually earned an 11-7 victory to move to 3-0 on the season.
Having seen two games (against Rome Free Academy and Watertown) postponed by bad weather in the first week of April, Liverpool was eager to start again, and was catching C-NS in the wake of an April 7 defeat to East Syracuse Minoa.
During the first quarter, the Warriors held the ball most of the way, yet could only build a 2-0 lead as two other shots crashed off posts.
At the same time, though, Liverpool clamped down on C-NS, limiting them to Josh Pickard’s lone goal in the game’s first 20-plus minutes and then shutting them out for more than 16 minutes after Austin VanDewalker converted late in the second period.
The first six Liverpool goals came from six different players – Kyle Caves, Ian Conroy, Cabry Hildmann, Jacob Fahey, Ryan McGowan and Ben Root. When Caves, Root and Hildmann added third-quarter tallies, Liverpool, with a 9-2 lead, appeared to have put it away.
But C-NS woke up in the fourth quarter. Four straight goals, three of them by Nate Scarlata, made it 9-6 with more than six minutes to play.
Sensing some urgency, the Warriors saw Caves and Hildmann each put in their third goals of the night in the closing minutes, bridging Brody Guido’s tally with 2:33 to play.
This was only the beginning of a tough week for both sides, since C-NS would then have to travel to West Genesee on Thursday night and Liverpool make its own road trip to Fayetteville-Manlius on Friday.
C-NS lost, 15-4, to West Genesee, the damage mostly done in a first half where the Wildcats steadily accumulated a 12-1 lead led by Kevin Sheehan, who had three goals and two assists, and Max Rosa, who added two goals and two assists.
Some late production came from the Northstars as Scarlata would score twice, helped by single goals from Guido and Justin Griffith. In goal, Brian Jobin recorded eight saves.
Liverpool caught F-M off surrendering a two-goal lead in an 8-7 defeat to defending sectional champion Baldwinsville just two nights earlier, and the Warriors ended up doing close to the same thing when it beat the Hornets 10-9 in overtime.
A strong first half helped Liverpool build a 7-3 advantage, but it got shut out in the third quarter, F-M making up most of the deficit and then inching out in front, 9-8, as time wound down.
Yet the Warriors pulled out of its struggles just in time, seeing Hildmann net the tying goal in the last seconds of regulation and then, in overtime, having Root take a pass from McGowan put in the game-winner.
Root, McGowan and Hildmann each scored two goals, as did Caves and Fahey. Each of them, other than Fahey, added an assist. F-M’s Jack Shanley led all scorers with four goals and one assist. Warriors goalie Cole Zaferikas recorded seven saves.
Now both local sides would welcome Essex (Vermont) for a weekend series, starting Friday with C-NS pulling out of its skid to beat Essex 13-9 in a game not settled until the Northstars went on a 5-2 run in the fourth quarter.
Scarlata had six goals, nearly half his team’s output. Guido had three goals, with Firth scoring twice. Pickard got three assists and Anthony Cimino had two assists as single goals went to Austin VanDewalker and Riley Kennedy.
Liverpool then met Essex on Saturday, not having a letdown after the F-M triumph as it prevailed 18-11, essentially settling matters early by building a 14-4 lead through three quarters.
McGowan had a career-best six assists to go with three goals. Caves scored five times, with Hildmann adding four goals. Lukas McIlroy got two goals as Jake Piseno and Connor Jones had one goal apiece. Root earned two assists and Conroy one assist.
