ONONDAGA COUNTY – Maybe the Marcellus boys soccer team took greater notice when the latest state Class B rankings had Westhill at no. 2, well ahead of the Mustangs in the no. 13 spot.
Or perhaps it was just the motivation of getting the upper hand in a long and storied rivalry, which was motivation enough without any ranking numbers attached.
Either way, it was a glorious Tuesday night for Marcellus, who on its home turf put away Westhill 3-0 to loudly state its case as both a league and Section III Class B title contender.
Twice in the first 10 minutes, the fired-up Mustangs got on the board, and it converted again early in the second half as Landon Kelly got two of those goals and Joe Murray the other, with Ryan Constable earning two assists and Austin Raicht a single assist.
While that was going on, a tough Marcellus defense, led by Murray, Jeff Lantry, Jacob LeFever and Sam Barney, turned back a steady stream of Westhill attacks, with Colin Scherer adding some late help on the back line as, behind them, Bob Bartolotta stopped all 11 shots he faced for the shutout.
Another shutout followed on Friday night, Marcellus handling Auburn 4-0. This time it was Constable netting a pair of goals, helped by single tallies from Raicht and Tristan Baker as Murray, Sam Barney and Will Kershaw earned assists.
Not to be forgotten in all this is Skaneateles, who had fallen to 2-3-1 on the season after close losses in its Finger Lakes Cup games to St. Francis (2-1) and West Genesee (2-0) and faces Marcellus early this week.
Shaking off those defeats, Skaneateles got back in the win column last Tuesday night against Cazenovia at Hyatt Stadium, battling its way to a 4-1 victory in this latest Laker duel.
Four different Skaneateles players – John Phillips, David Petercsak, Quinn Cheney and Heschel Eidel – picked up the four goals, displaying a scoring depth that could prove valuable down the road.
Chittenango, with a 6-1-1 record midway through its regular season, visited on Thursday night, and kept Skaneateles off the board for a long while before the Lakers took over late and earned a 2-0 victory.
Second-half goals by Andrew Falkenburg and Wyatt Langford proved enough, with Teague Foley getting an assist as Skaneateles was 4-3-1 at its midway point of the regular season.
Amid a busy Saturday slate, Westhill broke out of its brief skid with a 6-0 romp over Corcoran while Skaneateles, facing Homer, won by that same margin over the Trojans.
It was close for the Lakers, only up 1-0 at halftime, before it got away late led by Eidel’s pair of goals. Phillips, Falkenburg, Ben Patterson and John Coyne also scored, with David Petercsak getting two assists and single assists from Jeff McCrone and Delto Vasquez Perez.
