One of the main features of Saturday’s day-long series of contests between teams from Jamesville-DeWitt and Fayetteville-Manlius was the boys lacrosse showdown that capped off the festivities.
And his neighborhood rivalry did not disappoint, with the Red Rams withstanding the best shot the Hornets threw at them, and then leaning on its star senior forward, Griffin Cook, down the stretch to earn a 13-9 victory.
Whether they were tentative or just running into tough defensive opposition, the two sides muddled through a low-scoring first half, J-D getting the best of it as it inched into a 4-2 lead.
Everything changed, though, when F-M rattled off four straight goals early in the third quarter to go in front 6-4, the goals coming from four different players – Jack Shanley, Chris Lubrino, Nick Papa and Tommy Farry
Sufficiently alarmed, the Rams countered with a 4-0 run of its own to move back in front for good, with two of the goals from Will Davis. And after the Hornets pulled back within one, 8-7, early in the final period, Cook took over.
On consecutive plays 11 seconds apart, Cook picked up ground balls from face-offs, surged down the field and fired it into the net. Not done yet, Cook followed up an exchange of goals with a hustle play that led to a spectacular goal and an assist on Connor Durkin’s tally that made it 12-7, putting the game out of F-M’s reach.
All told, Cook had five goals and two assists, with Davis getting three goals. Durkin and Drotar had two goals apiece as Ryan Vespi got the other goal. Assists went to Johnny Keib and Tyler Brang.
Shanley and Papa each scored three times to pace F-M, with Brandon Leuze joining Farry and Lubrino with single goals. Everything else got stopped by J-D goalie Liam Coyle, who had 12 saves as Hornets counterpart Jack VanValkenburgh had 10 saves.
J-D, who began the week at no. 3 in the state Class C rankings, took on Cortland last Tuesday night and, ignoring the snowy conditions, lit up the board for 11 goals in the first quarter on the way to routing the Purple Tigers 22-8.
It was 17-2 by halftime, the Rams seeing seeing 13 different players put in goals, led by Cook, who found the net four times as Durkin got two goals and three assists.
Davis, Keib, Pat Murad,,Tanner Burns and Matt Kemmis matched Durkin’s two-goal output, Murad and Davis also earning assists. Single goals went to Vespi, Brang, Brendan Drotar, Josh Greenway, James Dougherty and Ryan Evans.
Home again to face Central Square Thursday night, J-D rolled again, 20-5, roaring out to a 10-0 lead by the end of the first quarter as Cook would have his best game of the season, piling up seven goals and six assists for a career-best 13 points.
Durkin had three goals and three assists, with Burns and Brendan Drotar also getting three-goal hat tricks. Ryan Drotar chimed in with two goals as Davis and Nick Kemmis also earned goals. Murad and Matt Kemmis had one assist apiece.
F-M would bounce back from narrow defeats to Baldwinsville and Liverpool (the latter of them in overtime) the week before starting with last Tuesday’s wintry 12-3 romp over Cicero-North Syracuse.
The snow seemed to get worse as the game went on, but that played to the Hornets’ advantage as it steadily worked its way to a 7-3 halftime lead and then blanked C-NS during the second half while doubling its margin.
Papa scored four times, adding an assist. arry had a three-goal hat trick of his own as Leuze and Cal Isley each got one goal and one assist and Lubrino had two assists. Shanley, Sam DiChristina and Will Gotheld also found the net.
