CENTRAL NEW YORK – Though a high school boys lacrosse game is 48 minutes long, it took far less time for Fayetteville-Manlius to realize just what it would need if it wanted to get the best of main rival West Genesee in 2024.
The Hornets’ 16-10 defeat to the Wildcats last Tuesday night at F-M Stadium illustrated that, in this sport, plenty of skills are important, but none might impact a game more than grabbing face-offs.
Sitting at no. 12 in the state Class A rankings, F-M had gone 7-1 in the first half of the regular season, while WG was 8-1 and no. 5 in the state Class B poll, only adding to the game’s anticipation.
Yet the Hornets were never able to recover from a first quarter where the Wildcats constantly got possession and constantly solved F-M’s defense, not letting up until it had built a 7-2 advantage.
Both here, and in a third quarter where it got outscored 6-2, the Hornets tried, in vain, to keep WG’s Jonah Vormwold from dominating at the center X.
Of the 27 face-offs he took, Vormwold won 20 of them, the key to establishing a 14-6 advantage through three quarters along with four goals from Nolan Bellotti and three goals from Gary McLane, to go with two assists.
Colin Clark did get a three-goal hat trick for the Hornets, with Kyle Freyer scoring twice. Sean Kellish and Tom Porter each had one goal and one assist, with Tyler Burns also converting. Conor Reynolds, in goal, recorded 11 saves.
Now F-M would have to test itself against its neighbors from Jamesville-DeWitt, who were back in form following narrow defeats to Marcellus and Victor the week before.
It would go 11-8 in the Red Rams’ favor, a game played on even terms for the last three periods, but only after J-D got the jump.
Attacking hard, the Rams built a 5-2 advantage through one period. Then it traded goals until a third quarter where it extended the margin to 11-6, ample enough to withstand a late-game scoring drought.
Sam Brazell, with three goals and three assists, and Lucas Patchen, who scored four times, anchored the J-D offense. Braeden Baker got one goal and one assist, with Graham Kesserling, Alex Carolin and Anthony Guidone also finding the net and assists going to Eli Goldberg, Nick Miller and Carson Corona.
On F-M’s side, only Randal Hearn, with three goals and one assist, found the net more than once. Burns, Porter and Clark each had one goal and one assist, while Freyer and Kellish also converted. J-D goalie Emmet McCaul had 15 saves, three more rhan Reynolds.
J-D had, before it faced F-M, ripped past Fulton 18-5 last Tuesday, going up 9-1 by the end of the first quarter and 18-3 by the time it rested starters in the final period.
Brazell piled up six assists, while Kesserling had four goals and two assists. Carolin scored three times and got three assists as Ben Porter and Andrew Laubenstein had two goals apiece. Baker and Tate Mullin contributed single goals.
F-M bounced back from the J-D defeat by claiming a tense 11-10 decision over Rochester McQuaid on Saturday afternoon.
Trailing 5-4 after one period, the Hornets grabbed a 7-6 edge by halftime and matched the Knights the rest of the way, with Reynolds having a big effort as he finished with 15 saves.
Many different F-M players contributed to the attack as Hearn, Dougherty and Ryder Baldwin each got two goals and one assist. Clark had a goal and two assists, with Kellish earning one goal and one assist. Burns, Jonathan Schalk and Nathan Conley also picked up goals and the Hornets improved to 8-3 overall.
