For as long as it will have to wait and work for another season to begin next March, the Cazenovia boys lacrosse team will ponder what went wrong in the first quarter of Friday night’s Section III Class D semifinal against General Brown at East Syracuse Minoa Stadium.
Whether it was nerves, or poor execution, or just the sheer quality of its opponent, the no. 5 seed Lakers never recovered from those first 12 minutes as it fell, 13-10, to top seed General Brown.
It was the second year in a row the Lakers lost in the sectional semifinals, but unlike 2017, when Westhill beat them, Cazenovia had good reason to think it could reach the title game.
A hard-fought sectional quarterfinal win at no. 4 seed LaFayette had provided some confidence. What was more, though General Brown arrived with the no. 2 state Class D ranking, it had not faced a schedule as consistently difficult as what the Lakers had faced.
If all of this made Cazenovia underestimate the Lions, it proved a big mistake.
Throughout the fateful first quarter, the Lakers gave away possessions, and when it did get shots, they either flew off target or, in a couple of instances, crashed off posts.
Meanwhile, GB was unleashing an aggressive, diverse attack. Corey O’Connor Dominic Lutz and Tre Coney scored to produce a 3-0 advantage, and defender Tyler Scordo stunned Cazenovia with a 70-yard sprint to the net and a goal to further stretch out the lead.
By the time Bryce Johnson converted in the last minute of the period, the Lakers found itself trailing 5-0, and the rest of the game turned into a long, frustrating chase.
Even when Ryan Romagnoli, Alex Novak and Thomas Bragg hit on consecutive goals to pull Cazenovia close early in the second period, the Lions countered with goals by Coney and Brendon Scordo just five seconds apart.
That sparked another GB run that stretched the margin to 10-3, but just before it could get out of hand, Novak and Bragg converted in the last 90 seconds of the half.
Trailing 10-5 at the break, Cazenovia found itself in a holding pattern during the third quarter, and was still down, 12-6, when it set up one more furious comeback.
Consecutive goals by Nowak, his fourth and fifth of the game, plus one by Romagnoli, cut the margin in half to 12-9, but a penalty led to a Lions man-up situation that Carter Rosebrook converted with 4:34 to play.
Though Bragg answered a minute later, and the Lakers had a host of opportunities to get closer, it kept getting turned back thanks to a series off great stops by GB goalie Carson Pickeral, who had 18 saves.
The Lions advanced to face defending state champion CBA in the sectional title game as the Brothers pulled away late to beat Marcellus 12-4 in the other semifinal.
Cazenovia’s first season under head coach Dave Falge finished at 9-9, with the Lakers overcoming a rough start and the fact that it didn’t play a true home game until May to battle its way to the sectional semifinals again.
