Before April ended, lacrosse teams from West Genesee and Marcellus took part in a busy, exciting Saturday of action, and mostly found success.
Each of the Wildcats teams faced Jamesville-DeWitt, with the girls prevailing 6-4 in a tight defensive battle, but the boys getting shut down by the Red Rams later that day in a 10-4 defeat.
Meanwhile, Marcellus saw its boys lacrosse team win its sixth game in a row, rallying to beat Cicero-North Syracuse 10-9 in overtime as the girls Mustangs rebounded from a rough loss to Westhill by defeating Whitesboro 13-9.
For the West Genesee girls, hosting J-D at Mike Messere Field came in the midst of four games against reigning Section III champions in 10 days.
The Wildcats had beaten CBA on April 21 and lost to Fayetteville-Manlius two days before J-D arrived, and a trip to Skaneateles still loomed, but the Red Rams proved quite tough on its own.
J-D played WG to a 3-3 first-half draw. Then the Wildcats’ defense took over as the back line of Emma Parry, Grace Walker, Madison Smith and Meredith Barrett shut down the Red Rams, for the most part, and Madison Fox worked her total to six saves.
Though far from potent, WG’s attack did enough on the other end to get in front for good. Only Matisyn Schaut scored twice, with single goals going to Emily Stratton, Mackenzie Winn, Elise Mancabelli and Adrianna Nojaim, with Phoebe Nelson earning a pair of assists.
Defense was also the story in the West Genesee boys lacrosse team’s visit to J-D, only it came in the form of the Red Rams doing a terrific job of containment after it had jumped all over the Wildcats on the other end.
After goals by Ryan Vespi and Ryan Drotar pushed J-D in front, WG found itself unable to answer it, kept from even getting a shot throughout the latter stages of the first quarter.
Then J-D made it worse early in the second quarter. Back-to-back goals by Johnny Keib, plus tallies from Tyler Brang and Will Davis, extended the Wildcats’ deficit to 6-0 by the middle of the period.
Even when WG cut the margin to 6-2 by halftime, the Red Rams answered it, stretching its lead to 9-2 in the third period, out of the Wildcats’ reach as Keib finished with three goals and one assist.
All the Wildcats could manage was single goals by John Bergan, Ryan Smith, Max Rosa and Jack Howes, something it knew it had to improve on before Thursday’s rematch with the Baldwinsville side it lost to 8-7 on April 17.
Earlier that day, the Marcellus boys, winners of five in a row, found itself in a tight battle with Cicero-North Syracuse, trading goals and finding itself down 7-6 going to the fourth quarter.
But the Mustangs caught up, tying it 9-9, and took it to OT, where with 30 seconds left in the first extra period Gabe VanOrder notched his second goal of the day to win it.
Prior to that, Matt Reich and Matt Connell had earned three-goal hat tricks, with Liam Tierney scoring twice. Rob Lobello had two assists and Connor Widrick one assist as goalie Rob Seeley amassed 18 saves.
The Marcellus girls team had a bit less drama against Whitesboro, but found its victory quite welcome after Westhill had smashed the Mustangs 19-5 two days earlier.
Pulling away from a 7-5 halftime advantage, Marcellus stopped the Warriors as Katherine Locastro scored five times, with Anna Vetsch and Sarah Hutchings each getting three-goal hat tricks. Lily Powell added two goals and one assist as Natalie Clere got the other goal.
