ONONDAGA COUNTY – Both of the Baldwinsville lacrosse teams had serious early-season tests and were unable to conquer them, demonstrating just how much work remained if both wanted to hold on to their respective Section III Class A crowns.
The boys Bees were 1-1 as it traveled last Thursday night to Jamesville-DeWitt, a Class C state finalist a season ago who demonstrated, in beating B’ville 16-9, just how good it remained.
J-D had netted 83 goals in its first four games, the only close one a 16-14 thriller over Niskayuna on April 6, and hardly let up on its pace here against a normally stout Bees defense.
Steadily, the margin grew throughout the game, B’ville trailing 10-5 by halftime and unable to match the depth of skill that the Rams threw at them.
Brady Garcia did net four goals, with Dylan Garcia scoring twice. Tieman Lynch, Judson Ferris and Joey Saraceni tacked on goals, yet everything else got turned back as J-D goalie Eli Goldberg had 11 saves.
Five Rams players had multiple tallies. Sam Brazell and Graham Kesserling each scored four times, with Brazell adding three assists. Lucas Patchen got his own three-goal hat trick, with Andrew Laubenstein and Alex Carolin both netting a pair of goals.
Back home on a cold, windy Saturday afternoon, B’ville faced Section V’s Canandaigua, the game turning into a tense, low-scoring affair that the Bees managed to pull out 5-4 over the Gray Wolves.
Once it took a 3-1 lead by the end of the opening period, B’ville found itself shut down for long stretches as Canandaigua used long possessions to control the game’s tempo.
But the Bees’ defense was just as good. Anchored by “Manley Cup” team MVP Anthony Nicolucci, it held the Gray Wolves to a single first-half goal and then held on late after Canandaigua cut B’ville’s 5-2 margin to one in the fourth quarter.
Iggy LoMedico joined Dylan Garcia in netting a pair of goals, the other going to Brady Garcia. Trevor Sutton, in goal, stopped 10 of the 14 shots he faced.
In the case of the B’ville girls, it was 0-1 going into last Tuesday’s game against Fulton, who gained the edge by halftime and held on to it, defeating the Bees 11-8.
The Red Dragons established a 7-4 edge before the break. Raegan Ratliff led B’ville’s comeback attempt, netting a career-best four goals as Peyton Dyl scored twice. Sierra Natoli added a goal and three assists, Brianna Peters getting the other goal and Bella Gebhardt picking up six saves.
With little time to recover, B’ville found itself back on the field 24 hours later against Westhill, and never would get close in a 15-5 loss to the Warriors, who got a huge effort from Kara Rosenberger, her seven goals more than the entire Bees roster.
Only Olivia Bartlett managed to score twice for the hosts, the single goals going to Natoli, Dyl and Jada Madigan. Ratliff added an assist as the Bees face a trio of games this week against West Genesee, Fayetteville-Manlius and Jamesville-DeWitt.
B’ville’s boys have its own contest with West Genesee and F-M, then hosts CBA on Saturday afternoon.
