Though it involved all kinds of tension and required one heart-stopping comeback, the Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy boys lacrosse teams have set up the showdown for the Section III Class C championship they both wanted so much.
In Tuesday night’s sectional semifinals at Central Square, the top-seeded Red Rams fended off a fierce challenge from no. 5 seed East Syracuse Minoa 10-8, which was an exciting enough game.
Yet what preceded that game had even more drama. No. 2 seed CBA, trailing for most of its semifinal against no. 3 seed Westhill, rallied just in time to force overtime and then beat the Warriors 13-12.
Colin Kelly saved the Brothers’ season, not just hitting the game-winner one minute, 52 seconds into OT, but forcing the extra period by finding the net with less than a second to play in regulation.
Prior to that, Kelly had not scored a goal in a game where CBA had seen Westhill take a far different approach than the slow-it-down style that didn’t work when the Brothers beat them 12-7 two weeks earlier.
The Warriors built a 5-3 margin by the end of the first quarter before three straight goals by Wyatt Auyer, Sam Bonacci and Preston Taylor gave CBA a 6-5 lead – the only time it would lead in regulation.
Westhill answered with a 4-1 run to close the half, with Jack Grooms scoring for the fourth time and Reilly Sizing converting to put the Warriors in front 9-7 at the break.
Throughout most of the second half, CBA found itself chasing the Warriors, twice getting within one and twice seeing Westhill answer, so that when Will Delano scored early in the fourth quarter, the Brothers trailed 12-10.
Ryan Mackenzie, who had carried the Brothers’ attack most of the way, cut the margin to one with his sixth goal with 7:21 left. Here, Westhill reverted to the patient style that had not worked in the first meeting – and it almost worked.
With a minute to play, though, the Warriors, trying to kill the remaining clock, was whistled for a pick play, giving CBA one more chance. Twice in that final minute, the Brothers called time-outs.
Against Westhill’s zone defense, the ball worked itself around to the right side. Kelly, perhaps sensing the clock running out, charged and fired one past Aiden Felter with just 0.6 seconds left.
Now with all of the momentum, CBA turned back a Westhill man-up chance early in OT, and then pushed the ball to the other end, where Taylor found Kelly on the left side, and Kelly drilled home the game-winner.
With this great escape accomplished, the Brothers now watched J-D and ESM square off for a third time this spring. The Red Rams had won both previous encounters, but the 11-10 decision late in April gave the Spartans a reason to believe it could catch up here.
Early on, the show belonged to J-D goalie Parker MacLachlan, who made five point-blank stops before the Rams even took a shot – that Johnny Keib converted midway through the first quarter.
Inspired by the defense, J-D’s attack got itself into typical form and, by the second period, was threatening to run away, building a 6-1 margin as Will Davis and Matt Kemmis each scored twice.
The Spartans didn’t go away, answering with a 3-0 run of its own before the half ended. Then, trailing 8-4 in the third quarter, ESM again got three straight goals, including a behind-the-back shot from freshman Jackson Palumb.
A key sequence early in the final period had MacLachlan make back-to-back close-range stops and then, seconds later, Connor Durkin converted, doubling J-D’s margin to 9-7.
That was needed, since Lance Madonna converted with 2:19 to play, pulling ESM back within one again, and the Spartans did get a possession in the final minute, only to turn it over.
J-D got a goal in the final seconds from Keib, his third of the game, to clinch it. Durkin, Kemmis and Pat Murad had two goals apiece as MacLachlan finished with 11 saves and Spartans counterpart Logan Lemelbaum had 10 saves.
The sectional final between state no. 3-ranked J-D and state no. 2-ranked CBA is Friday at Liverpool High School Stadium, paired with the Class D sectional final between Marcellus and LaFayette.
