With three games apiece, the Cazenovia and Chittenango boys soccer teams would work plenty during the last week of the regular season.
What they might not have figured, though, was that those results would lead to a first-round showdown between the Lakers and Bears in the Section III Class B playoffs Wednesday night at the Sean Googin Sports Complex, which kicks off at 6:30.
As the no. 5 seed, Cazenovia ended up with no. 12 seed Chittenango, and the winner won’t get much time to celebrate since the quarterfinal against no. 4 seed Clinton or no. 13 seed Oneida takes place a couple of days later.
Before all this, the Lakers went up last Tuesday against Holland Patent, and having to come back late to record a 3-2 victory over the Golden Knights that proved as exciting as any this season.
Through 40 minutes, Cazenovia trailed 1-0, perhaps feeling the effect of playing back-to-back games the previous weekend against Skaneateles and Whitesboro, and losing them both.
Determined to avoid a longer skid, Cazenovia tied it, 1-1, on Trey Schug’s goal and saw Schug convert again to put his team in front, all before the second half was 10 minutes old. Goalie Ray Satchwell assisted on one of those goals.
Now it was HP settling down, pulling even 2-2 with nine minutes left as Jack Mahanna got one goal and assisted on the other by Chris Biro.
They stayed tied through one 10-minute OT period, but in the second OT Logan Comfort flashed open and ripped a shot to the top right corner of the net, out of the reach of Golden Knights goalie Jonathan Tolpa. Comfort had assisted on one of Schug’s goals.
Chittenango began its homestretch by hosting defending Section III Class B champion Westhill, and were closer to the Warriors than Cazenovia was late in September, yet it still lost 1-0.
When Bo BenYehuda scored in the first half off a feed from Mack Etoll, the Warriors may have expected more, but did not produce anything against a stubborn Chittenango defense anchored by Noah Schnauffer, who made 12 saves.
But the Bears’ problem was that it never relieved the pressure on Schnaufer, taking just one direct shot all night and rarely causing major stress.
Chittenango recovered from that defeat on Thursday, toppling Homer 4-1 with a first-half barrage where Sean Larsson and Dan Moon each scored twice, with Artie Paul getting a pair of assists. Tom McIntosh also had an assist.
As that went on, Cazenovia traveled to Alibrandi Stadium to face state Class A no.9-ranked Christian Brothers Academy, and found the Brothers too difficult to handle in a 3-1 defeat.
Joe Spires scored in the first half, assisted by Schug, yet CBA still led 2-1 at the break and got away late. Satchwell made 12 saves as, for the Brothers, Matt Potenza scored twice and Ayo Oguntola had the other goal, with Ben Vlassis getting two assists.
At South Jefferson on Saturday, the Lakers were quite impressive, blanking the Spartans 4-0 to conclude the regular season with an overall record of 11-5.
Chittenango, meanwhile, could get to the .500 mark (8-8) if it beat state Class C no. 11-ranked Bishop Grimes on Saturday – which it did, handling the Cobras by the same 4-0 margin as Cazenovia earned at South Jefferson.
A pair of goals in each half was more than enough as Jan Hartman stepped up, scoring twice and delivering an assist. Larsson and Anthony Roberts also converted, with Paul and Dan Moon contributing assists.
