CENTRAL NEW YORK – What had once seemed a small gap between the Marcellus and Westhill boys lacrosse teams, at least in terms of their status as championship contenders, has considerably widened.
This was quite evident last Tuesday night when, on the Mustangs’ home turf, the state Class D no. 3-ranked Mustangs pulled away from the no. 11-ranked Warriors and won by a 19-8 margin.
First it was the Marcellus defense hard at work, holding Westhill to a single goal in each of the first two quarters while steadily working its way to an 8-2 lead by the break.
Then the Mustangs doubled that total with an 8-2 third-quarter blitz, the attack led by the brother tandem of Nick and Adam Rayfield as Nick worked his total to six goals and Adam scored five times, to go with three assists.
Chris Doshna was active, too, with three goals and four assists. Donavan Fraher had two goals and two assists as Jimmy Cox got two assists while joining Henry Lawrence and Luke Spitzer with single goals. Dieter Steigerwald and Damyn LeClair also got two assists.
On its side, Westhill saw Tom Pendergast get three goals and one assist, with Josh Gratien converting twice. Charlie DeMore and Owen Etoll each were held to one goal and one assist as Andrew Mondo had the other goal.
As a follow-up on Thursday, Marcellus took apart Cazenovia in a 19-0 shutout, limiting those other Lakers to just seven shots, all stopped by Quenten Polkowski and Otto Moses.
The Rayfields reached double digits in goals, Nick with six and Adam four to go with a pair of assists. Cox and Lawrence both converted twice, with single goals going to Steigerwald, LeClair, Hollis Child, Rory Wiley and Jackson Formoza.
Closer to Marcellus in those state rankings was Skaneateles, in the no. 3 spot, who again won big last Tuesday when it put away Section IV’s Ithaca in a 14-7 decision.
Building a 9-2 lead through three periods, the Lakers got tremendous work in goal from the duo of Jack Marquardt and Luke Logan, who stopped 15 of 22 shots between them.
Landen Brunelle nearly matched Ithaca by himself, scoring six times and adding an assist, the passes often coming from Sean Kerwick, who got five assists to go with his pair of goals. Quinn Cheney and Tye Kennedy also had two-goal outings as Charlie Carbonaro and Jack Torrey had the other goals.
To close the regular season on Saturday, Skaneateles outlasted Canton 13-10, a game that wasn’t close early as an 8-2 charge through the second quarter gave the Lakers an 11-4 edge going into halftime.
Despite Canton’s late push, Skaneateles held on, Brunelle netting four goals as Kerwick and Luke Mizro had three goals apiece. Carbonaro gained a goal and two assists and Luke Logan recorded nine saves.
This happened as Westhill stumbled again, taking an 11-6 loss to South Jefferson. Improving to 13-3 overall, the Spartans pulled away late led by Chase Waite’s five goals as only Pendergast scored twice for the Warriors, with Charlie DeMore adding a goal and two assists. Gratien and Mondo each had one goal and one assist.
Jordan-Elbridge lost a low-scoring 5-3 decision to Seneca Falls’ Mynderse Academy last Thursday night, falling to 7-7 on the season despite 28 saves from Austin Brunelle and goals from Wyatt Werth, Brayden Kitterle and Casey Ryan.
Two days later, the Eagles were overwhelmed in a 19-7 defeat to Christian Brothers Academy, who jumped out 7-0 in the first quarter and never got caught. Nixon Karcz had three of J-E’s four goals, Werth addng a goal and two assists as Ryan, Connor Fraher and Jason Hallinan also found the net. Brunelle made 15 saves.
