ONONDAGA COUNTY – When the Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool boys lacrosse teams met up for a third time last Thursday night at Bragman Stadium, each side had a reason to vent.
The Warriors simply wanted to avenge its previous two defeats to the Northstars from earlier in the month, while C-NS had seen an opportunity at a program-defining win slip away two nights earlier.
Even as Liverpool tried to slow down the game’s tempo, the Northstars produced enough to make its way to halftime carrying a 5-3 advantage.
The third quarter proved decisive, C-NS finding the net four times to Liverpool’s one, and from there the Northstars cruised to a 10-6 victory and a clean sweep of the three-game season series.
Two nights earlier, visiting Fayetteville-Manlius, the Northstars played close to perfection in the first half and were poised to hand the 7-0 Hornets its first defeat this spring, only to leave on the wrong end of a 12-10 defeat.
Having learned plenty from the 16-10 and 14-6 defeats it took against F-M so far, the Northstars battled its way to a 6-3 halftime advantage with strong play on both ends of the field.
Offensively, it was Mason Ciciarelli that proved tough to stop, Ciciarelli ultimately finishing with seven of C-NS’s 10 goals as Mason Blakeman scored twice, Eljiah Martin added a goal and Anthony Cimino earned three assists.
F-M would rally behind a far deeper attack, overcoming a brilliant effort in goal by Giovanni Heater, who recorded 19 saves.
Pratt Reynolds led the Hornets with three goals, with Caden Yancey, Ty Teelin and Connor Aspinall earning two goals apiece. Isaac Frechette added three assists as Anthony DaRin got one goal and one assist.
As that went on, Liverpool had gone up against West Genesee a third a time and, like the previous two occasions, lost to the Wildcats, this one a 13-7 decision.
Even with a solid defense, the Warriors found itself trailing 4-1 at halfime, and WG doubled that margin led by Alex Rosa’s four goals and two assists.
For its part, Liverpool got a three-goal hat trick from Aaron Clouthier, plus an assist. Jackson Furr and Dom Osbeck both had one goal and one assist, while Joe Sacco and Nick Toscano had the other goals and Owen Michaud got a pair of assists.
