CENTRAL NEW YORK – Now it was time for the Cazenovia boys lacrosse team to turn its full attention to the opponents it knew it had to beat in order to have any chance at the Section III Class C championship.
A tough regular-season homestretch started last Tuesday at Homer where, in its sixth consecutive road game, Cazenovia lost 11-7 to the Trojans.
Here, the game’s key sequence came in the second quarter. Both sides had found the net early, but Cazenovia, trailing 4-3, held Homer to a single goal in that period.
But the Lakers were shut out on the other end, and wasn’t able to catch up from there, mostly thwarted by a superb effort in the net by Trojans goalie Ben Bradshaw, who stopped 18 of Cazenovia’s 25 shots.
Brandon Barnard had three goals and Forrest Ives scored twice, adding an assist.D.B. Falge and Alex Kuper netted single goals as four different Homer players – Sam Sorenson, Reid Partis, Mitch Riter and Alex Votra – each got two goals, with Hunter Riehlman getting a goal and four assists.
The Lakers were off until Saturday afternoon, when it honored its seniors before its game against Section IV’s Chenango Forks at the Sean Googin Sports Complex.
It proved special for all that were in attendance as Cazenovia turned up its production from the outset and never let up until it had recorded a 20-9 victory over the Blue Devils.
In the first quarter, the Lakers built a 7-1 advantage and then spent the rest of the game putting together a string of scoring runs to move the margin to double digits.
Ultimately, Barnard, Falge and Forrest Ives each would produce five goals, with Barnard adding five assists and Falge three assists.
Helping them out, Ben Blanco scored twice, while single goals went to Kuper, Bobby Livingston and Henry Miller. Tom Navin got credited with an assist.
At 8-6 overall, Cazenovia would host its Laker rivals from Skaneateles Monday before Thursday’s regular-season finale at Christian Brothers Academy.
