That quick start the Liverpool boys lacrosse team put together has turned into a mighty struggle in the latter stages of the regular season.
The Warriors were attempting to get a regular-season sweep against Fayetteville-Manlius last Tuesday night, but could not quite pull it off, falling 8-7 to the Hornets.
Back on April 20, Liverpool won its fourth in a row, rallying to knock off F-M 10-9 in overtime. Eventually the win streak reached six, but the Warriors had gone 1-3 since.
Now F-M, playing for the third time in four days, wanted revenge, and didn’t get fazed when Liverpool jumped out to a 3-0 first-quarter lead. The Hornets shut out the Warriors the rest of the first half and zoomed out in front, 5-3.
By the fourth quarter, Liverpool closed the gap to 7-6, and though F-M only scored once in those last 12 minutes, it was just enough, the Hornets’ defense keeping the Warriors in check other than Cabry Hildmann’s five-goal effort and Kyle Caves’ trio of assists.
Caves and Lukas McIlroy were the only other Liverpool players other than Hildmann to score. Cole Zaferakis made 12 saves as, for F-M, Chris Lubrino had three goals and one assist, with Jack Shanley and Zach Nestor each scoring twice as Shanley also got a pair of assists.
At Bragman Stadium last Tuesday night, Cicero-North Syracuse hoped to catch West Genesee looking ahead to its showdown with Baldwinsville, but instead got put away in the first half of a 15-7 defeat.
Shut out in the first quarter, the Northstars finally did get on the board, but only after the Wildcats had built a 12-2 margin as 12 different WG players eventually scored, led by Jack Howes, who had two goals and three assists.
Unable to match that kind of depth, C-NS still had a solid second-half showing. Nate Scarlata and Brody Guido each scored twice, with Joel Firth, Connor Lynch and Aidan Longley getting one goal apiece.
C-NS nearly followed up its April 26 win over Liverpool by knocking off Marcellus two days later, only to get beaten in overtime 11-10 by the Mustangs.
In a game closely fought all afternoon, the Northstars rallied from a 7-6 deficit in the fourth quarter, yet saw a 9-9 tie broken late in the first OT by Gabe VanOrder, who won it for Marcellus by putting it past Jobin, who had earned 21 saves to that point.
Scarlata gained four goals to lead C-NS, but no one else scored more than once as single goals went to Guido, Longley, Justin Griffith, Joel Firth and Peyton Watts. Matt Reich and Matt Connell led the Mustangs with three goals apiece.
C-NS then had its own game with F-M on Thursday night and didn’t come as close as Liverpool did, taking an 11-5 defeat as it fell behind 7-3 by halftime and couldn’t make up ground even when it shut out the Hornets in the third quarter.
Other than Griffith, who had three goals and one assist, the Northstars’ attack was kept relatively quiet. Scarlata and Firth had the other goals as Josh Pickard got an assist. Jobin did all he could, earning 13 saves.
Not until Friday did either team pick up a win in May, and it was Liverpool doing so, going to Corcoran High School Friday night and handling the Syracuse Cougars 19-8.
Building a 14-5 advantage by halftime, the Warriors had Hildmann nearly match Syracuse by himself, scoring seven times overall to go with an assist as McIlroy also had a big night, with four goals and two assists.
To help them, Caves got four assists to go with his pair of goals, while Ben Root and Ryan McGown both had two goals and two assists. Jacob Fahey and Cabe Clouthier had the other goals.
