HOMER – Things would end for the newly combined form of the Cazenovia boys lacrosse team after just one game in its return to the Section III Class C playoffs.
Drawing the no. 5 seed in an 11-team bracket, the Lakers had a bye straight into the quarterfinals, but that meant traveling to face no. 4 seed Homer Wednesday night.
And the task ultimately proved too tall for Cazenovia, who other than a second-quarter scoring surge could not do much more against the Trojans, taking a 13-9 defeat.
Even with an 8-8 regular-season record, the Lakers had lost, 11-7, when these same two teams met two weeks earlier on that same Homer turf.
Now, with a berth in the sectional semifinals against top seed Jamesville-DeWitt at stake, Cazenovia absorbed Homer’s strong first quarter and, trailing 3-1, turned into around, outscoring the Trojans 5-2 the rest of the half.
Homer recovered, though, reclaiming a slim 9-8 edge by the end of the third quarter and wearing down the Lakers in the final minutes, helped by seeing goalie Ben Bradshaw record 14 saves.
In defeat, Brendon Barnard scored four times, with Forrest Ives and Ben Blanco getting two goals apiece. Ives also had two assists as D.B. Falge earned Cazenovia’s other goal.
Tucker Ives played the whole game in goal and recorded 12 saves, not quite able to contain a well-balanced Homer attack where Hunter Riehlmann and Alex Votra both had three goals and Riehlmann added three assists as Sam Sorenson and Dan Stiles had two goals apiece.
