ONONDAGA COUNTY – Once before, each of the West Genesee lacrosse teams took their best shots at Baldwinsville, the dominant sides in each of the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro divisions.
Now they did so again, colliding last Tuesday night as the girls Wildcats hosted the Bees and the boys made its way to Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium.
Neither side would prove successful, with WG’s boys completely shut down for long stretches of a 9-2 defeat and the girls unable to fully contain a lethal B’ville attack in its loss.
They each caught B’ville coming off their first losses of the season on April 30 – the boys to Victor, the girls to Pittsford – and in this case, the timing assured that the WG sides would face extremely focused opposition.
In the case of the girls side, it was a Wildcats squad who had nearly knocked off the Bees on April 14, only to see B’ville net the tying and winning goals in the final minute of a 10-9 decision.
Here, though, it ended up 17-10, with the Bees steadily building a 9-4 edge before Courtney Reynolds scored in the last seconds of the first half and Reis Pagan made it 9-6 early in the second half.
That was as close as it would get, though. B’ville steadily got away late as Carlie Desimone got five goals and two assists, with Mia Pozzi and Grace Hollenbeck each converting three times and Pozzi adding five assists.
At Baldwinsville, it was clear from the outset that WG’s boys would have to put together some kind of scoring burst after the Bees raced to a 5-1 lead by the end of the first quarter.
To its credit, the Wildcats did settle down on the defensive side, seeing its back line mostly keep the Bees from another sustained scoring push as Shane Staudt and Dylan Desena combined for 12 saves.
But other than first-half goals from Jack Mellen and Teshale Kelly, B’ville didn’t allow anything, with game MVP Tucker Macknick and his back-line mates tracking, containing and shutting down anything WG tried to do.
Nick Cary and Mason Clark had 10 saves between them as, on the other end, Keegan Lynch again anchored the attack, netting four assists as he joined Carson Dyl, Ryan Hollenbeck and Trey Ordway scoring two goals apiece. Leo Johnson had the other goal and Jacob Czyz won 12 of the 15 face-offs he took.
Turning this around on Thursday, both of WG’s sides would win over another main rival, Fayetteville-Manlius, though the way they got there was quite interesting.
The boys Wildcats, who prevailed 12-11, controlled the early stages and then outscored the Hornets 5-1 in the third quarter as Liam Burns netted four goals and one assist, with Mellen and River Oudemool each scoring twice. Kelly, Patrick Linton and Charles Lockwood each had one goal and one assist.
Yet WG almost blew that entire margin, F-M netting six unanswered goals in the fourth quarter before the Wildcats held on, helped in no small part by Dylan Desena recording 16 saves.
It was different in the girls game, with the Wildcats outscoring F-M 19-13 in a game that was tied, 9-9, early in the second half before WG went on a decisive 9-3 run.
Olivia Blanding led the way with seven goals. Reynolds scored five times as Rylee Gonzalez got three goals and four assists and Julia Miller netted her own three-goal hat trick.
