CENTRAL NEW YORK – Red-hot starts from area boys lacrosse teams only seemed to add to the excitement and anticipation about what this season might ultimately provide.
A big game last Tuesday featured this element as, in a meeting of the defending sectional Class C and D champions, Westhill was able to knock off previously unbeaten LaFayette/Onondaga 14-11.
In the end, the difference was a first quarter where the Warriors kept the Lancers off the board and jumped to a 4-0 advantage, which it would maintain by answering everythign LaFayette/Onondaga threw at them the rest of the way.
Luke Savage took 18 face-offs and won 16 of them, with Luke Gilmartin and Emmet Starowicz each getting four goals, Gilmartin adding two assists and eight ground balls.
Owen Etoll scored twice, adding a pair of assists, while Andrew Mondo, Sean Rogers, Tom Pendergast and Ian Centore had one goal apiece and goalie Keller O’Hern finished with seven save.
From there, Westhill went on to another tough test Thursday against Homer, but the Warriors, only leading 8-6 going to the fourth quarter, got away in the final minutes and beat the Trojans 11-7.
Gilmartin netted three goals. Starowicz and Pendergast each got two goals, Starowicz adding two assists as Etoll, Rogers and Mondo each had one goal and one assist, Jack Hayes netting the other goal.
Then, in Saturday’s 14-6 win over South Jefferson, the Warriors saw Starowicz, with five assists, pass it to Mondo and Charlie DeMore, who each got three-goal hat tricks. Etoll had two goals and three assists, with Gilmartin, Pendergast and Hayes also finding the net.
Skaneateles had its own top-of-the-line performance Friday when it took on LaFayette/Onondaga and dominated the Lancers in every phase of the game on the way to a 17-3 victory.
From claiming face-offs to a string of successful attacks, the Lakers built a 10-1 advantage by halftime and continued with four unanswered goals in the third quarter.
Ethan Hunt grabbed five goals and three assists, with Grayson Brunelle scoring four times to go with his trio of assists. Jack Torrey, Landen Brunelle and Jeff McCrone had two goals apiece as Sean Kerwick and Quinn Cheney also found the net. Dom Caraccio and Charlie Carbonaro tacked on goals, too.
Prior to this, Skaneateles, already quite productive in each of its first two regular-season wins, got into a lose one with Section II’s Columbia on April 8 at Herkimer Community College but was able to edge the Blue Devils 11-10.
With all of the attention on him after a school-record 14-point performance against Indian River a week earlier, Grayson Brunelle still managed three goals and two assists.
Hunt scored four times, adding a single assist. Kerwick had a goal and three assists, with Cheney getting one goal and two assists. Carbonaro and Devon Gryzlo also had goals.
