CICERO – From fans in the stands to players on the sidelines, everyone on the Liverpool boys lacrosse team was fired up, for good reason.
Arriving at Friday night’s Section III Class A final at Bragman Stadium as a clear underdog to top seed and defending champion Baldwinsville, the Warriors had played something close to an ideal first quarter.
Jalen Graham was inning face-offs against the Bees’ Jake Czyz. Aaron Clouthier had scored twice after an initial goal by Dom Osbeck and Liverpool’s defense was frustrating B’ville into poor shots while goalie Owen Salanger made a series of point-blank stops.
Alas, it would not stay this way.
A series of missed opportunities before halftime, combined with a third-quarter barrage by B’ville, turned the game around, and it ended in a 15-8 Warriors defeat as the Bees won its third consecutive sectional Class A title.
Liverpool had proved, in two regular-season meetings with B’ville, that it could stand with them for long stretches, even if those games went 15-10 and 13-8 in the Bees’ favor.
Charged up for this championship-game occasion, the Warriors harnessed that energy into fine all-around play, patient on offense and effective on defense beyond Salanger’s ability to keep shots out.
And it appeared even better for Liverpool when an illegal stick penalty on the Bees gave the Warriors a two-minute man-up situation to start the second quarter. But B’ville’s defense forced a turnover and burned off that penalty, along with another one-minute opportunity the Warriors had later in the period.
Meanwhile, Ryan Hollenbeck put the Bees on the board and Carson Dyl followed with a pair of goals, including one in the last minute of the half that cut Liverpool’s advantage to 4-3, where it stood at the break.
Then the third quarter started. B’ville’s Keegan Lynch tied it 4-4 and, just 39 seconds later, fed Ryan Hollenbeck for the go-ahead goal. Then, after Jake Socker tied it 5-5, Czyz, claimed the ensuing faceoff, charged up the middle and beat Salanger just six seconds later, giving B’ville the lead for good.
Now in command, the Bees went on a 5-0 run, Hollenbeck tacking on two more goals. Again when the Warriors scored, the answer was swift, Hollenbeck finding the net a mere 14 seconds later and Colin Doyle converting, too.
All told, B’ville outscored Liverpool 9-2 in that third period to take a 12-6 advantage, and when Clouthier scored twice early in the fourth quarter to cut it to 12-8, the Bees’ defense closed ranks and made sure the Warriors didn’t score again.
Clouthier finished with five goals overall. Osbeck converted twice, with Owen Michaud (who had six goals in the semifinal win over Cicero-North Syracuse) and Jackson Furr held to one assist apiece.
Hollenbeck finished with six goals and one assist, Lynch accumulating five assists as Doyle earned three goals. Trey Ordway had two goals and two assists.
