All through the latter part of April, the Cazenovia boys lacrosse team offered challenges to top Onondaga High School League rivals, but were unable to catch them.
Following defeats to Marcellus and Westhill, the Lakers had a rematch with the Mustangs last Monday night at Cazenovia College’s Christakos Field.
This had a faster pace than the 6-4 game these two put together six days earlier at Marcellus, and again it was in doubt for a long while, but in the fourth quarter the Mustangs took over and pulled away to beat the Lakers 13-7.
Cazenovia fell behind 5-1 in the first period, but settled down and cut the deficit in half in the third quarter, pulling within 9-7 as Brian Pezzi notched four goals, with Ty Freyer scoring twice and Cody Dickinson adding a goal.
Once again, though, the Lakers could not get much past Marcellus goalie Rob Seeley, who stopped 18 of 25 shots he faced and blanked Cazenovia in the fourth quarter. For the Mustangs, Mike Quick (four goals), Tighe Powell (three goals) and Matt Connell (two goals, two assists) led the attack.
Three days later, Cazenovia visited LaFayette, looking to atone for an 18-10 defeat to the Lancers on March 30. But here, it got more lopsided as LaFayette prevailed 18-5.
What was a close game got away when the Lancers netted six unanswered goals in the second quarter. Gannon Houghton was the lone Lakers player to score twice as Freyer, Brody Coleman and Cole Basic had single goals.
Kaleb Benedict, Trevor Hill and Dylan Lyons each scored three times for LaFayette, with Benedict adding five assists. Cazenovia goalie Ian Fostveit recorded eight saves.
The struggles for Chittenango continued last Tuesday with a 16-4 loss to Tully, as Shane Kolb had two of the Bears’ goals, with the others going to Ethan Robles and Billy Demand.
Caleb Barnard, Zeph Scott and Elias Clement had one assist apiece, with Corey Jackowski and Nate Addison combining for 10 saves. The Black Knights led 11-1 by halftime as Jake Edinger (five goals, one assist) and Tyler Edinger (three goals, two assists) led them.
Two nights later, Chittenango visited Hyatt Stadium to face state Class D no. 3-ranked Skaneateles, and while it did have some success on offense, it couldn’t keep up with those other Lakers in a 21-10 defeat.
At halftime, the Bears only trailed 10-7, seeing Kolb, Demand and Barnard eventually produce three-goal hat tricks as Kolb added two assists. Robles got a goal and Brad Tily earned an assist.
Jackowski had 15 saves, but Skaneateles pulled away behind five goals and four assists from eighth-grader Grayson Brunelle. Brendan Powers and Evan Brunelle each had four goals, with Powers adding four assists as Pat Hackler got two goals and seven assists.
Cazenovia plays three times in this final full week of the regular season against Homer, CBA and Carthage, while Chittenango goes to Marcellus Tuesday night.
