ONONDAGA COUNTY – Already the Skaneateles boys soccer team has a history of reaching perfection, doing so in 2010 on the way to Section III and state Class B championships.
Now the Lakers, who have spent all season atop the state Class B rankings, could repeat that regular-season feat, but it hinged on prevailing at its own Finger Lakes Cup Tournament.
In Friday night’s opening round, Skaneateles resumed its rivalry with Marcellus and had one of its closest calls yet, going all 80 minutes to pull out a 2-1 victory over the Mustangs.
Despite Owen Cheney’s early goal, Skaneateles could not get away, only leading 1-0 at the break, and then Marcellus pulled even when Will Kershaw scored off a feed from Ryan Constable.
Tylar Moss answered minutes later, and it turned out to be the game-winner, though the Mustangs got a fine performance from its defense and goalie Adam Sullivan, who made nine saves.
Skaneateles would face Rochester Aquinas in Saturday’s final after the Irish survived penalty kicks with St. Francis (Buffalo) in the other opening-round game.
For a while, this game held concern, too, as Aquinas led 1-0 in the second half. But then Petercsak tied it in the 55th minute and, five minutes later, Cheney converted off a breakaway to give the Lakers the lead.
Moss assisted on Petercsak’s second goal with 15 minutes left, and it didn’t stop there, Cheney putting together another end-to-end run to find the net again before Moss closed it out.
By a 5-1 margin, Skaneateles had claimed the Finger Lakes Cup again, while Marcellus lost the consolation game 4-2 to St. Francis.
Dan Ramsgaurd and Luke Renaud both got assists during the Lakers’ late surge. Moss and Cheney were co-tournament MVPs, with Petercsak, Carter Corbett and Colin Gaglione named to the All-Tournament team along with Sullivan and Constable.
This culminated a stretch of four games in five days that began with Skaneateles bashing Homer 11-0. It was 7-0 by halftime as Moss and Cheney both got two goals and Moss added three assists.
Dan Ramsguard and Aidan Donovan also had two-goal outings, with Wyatt Langford getting one goal and one assist. Marty McNeil and Nick Cerimeli scored, too.
Handling Mexico 7-0 on Thursday, the Lakers scored six times in the first half alone. Moss, with two goals and one assist, led a well-balanced attack as Cheney, Langford, Cerimeli and David Petercsak also converted.
Though it had gone through a fair share of struggles against its neighbors, Marcellus picked up its best win of the season last Wednesday when it knocked off state Class B no. 12-ranked Cazenovia 1-0
Large portions of the game were spent in the Mustangs’ end, but Sullivan stopped all nine shots he faced, and got rewarded when Constable netted a second-half goal assisted by Jack Sammon.
