CENTRAL NEW YORK – What the Cazenovia boys soccer team found out during the Section III Class B playoffs was that there were good and bad parts to the new point system that determined seeds and sectional brackets.
At least on the surface, the points elevated the Lakers from what its 5-10-1 regular-season record may have indicated. However, it also put Cazenovia into the no. 8 seed and a very difficult assignment.
In Thursday night’s sectional quarterfinal, Cazenovia went to Hyatt Stadium to meet top seed Skaneateles, who had not lost a post-season game since 2018 while earning three consecutive state Class B titles.
Giving it an all-out effort, Cazenovia would contain Skaneateles for a long stretch of the game, yet not find itself able to overcome some early production from the host Lakers and see its season end with a 2-0 defeat.
Those first-half goals came from Sean Kerwick and Sam Ryan, and the problem for Cazenovia was that it simply could not generate much pressure against a rock-solid Skaneateles defense that limited it to one direct shot.
Cazenovia earned this opportunity by winning at home last Tuesday during a 4-1 victory over no. 9 seed Adirondack, a game where patience and relentless pressure eventually led to success.
Helped by a Derek Blake goal, the Wildcats played the Lakers to a 1-1 halftime draw, but Cazenovia quickly went out in front in the second half and stayed there.
Four different players – Eliot Comeau, Alex Dolly, Chase Shepard and Finley Hagan – earned the four goals. Nat Gale and Eli Royer joined Dolly in the assists column, overcoming LeeLynd Wilcox’s 11 saves.
That proved to be Cazenovia’s last win of the season, as it concluded with a 6-11-1 record after the defeat at Skaneateles.
That same day, Chittenango, as the no. 9 seed in Class A, knew that, if it could win at no. 8 seed Whitesboro in the opening round, it would get a shot at another top seed, Westhill.
Yet the Bears could not get there, taking a 2-1 defeat as all of the goals were scored in the second half.
Gavin Karwoski put Chittenango on the board, only to see Whitesboro have Kyle Little net one goal and assist on another, by Arthur Chmukh. Devin Trevisani’s six saves helped end the Bears’ season with an 8-9 mark.
