A single goal ended up separating Section III’s boys lacrosse teams from a clean sweep of the four regional championship games played on Saturday.
Liverpool, fresh off ending Baldwinsville’s two-year state championship reign, battled past Corning 9-5 in the Class A regional final at Vestal, while at Fayetteville-Manlius Stadium Marcellus, in Class D, and Jamesville-DeWitt, in Class C, rolled to easy victories over Section X opponents.
Only West Genesee, the Class B sectional champions, was turned back in a tense, low-scoring battle with Vestal, who on its own home field rallied in the second half and prevailed 6-5 in the final seconds of regulation.
From the very outset, Vestal was determined to dictate the game’s tempo and not let the Wildcats get into the kind of rhythm which had produced 29 goals in sectional playoff wins over CBA and Watertown.
The initial cost of this plan was getting shut out in the first half. Still, WG could not get away, only taking a 3-0 advantage to the break as Nolan Bellotti scored twice and Nash Oudemool added a goal.
Accustomed to getting most of the face-offs before Jonah Vorwmold’s injury, the Wildcats saw the Golden Bears get sparked by Tucker Zostant winning a draw and scoring just eight seconds into the second half to get Vestal on the board.
Late in the third quarter, two goals two minutes apart by Braden McMahon, plus a tally by Sammy Baek in the waning seconds, put Vestal in front, and a minute into the final period Tom Vallely made it 5-3.
Trailing for the first time in the post-season, WG fought back. Charlie Lockwood converted with 8:02 left, then did so again with 3:37 to play to make it 5-5.
Another draw went to the Golden Bears, though, and for more than three minutes of game time it passed it around and waited. Finally, with 8.1 seconds to play Baek, just named an All-American, went around from the back of the net and put it past Owen Coleman.
All of this followed the first game at Vestal, where against Corning Liverpool relied on the same formula that subdued B’ville – get out in front of the Hawks, and count on the defense to keep it that way.
Here, the 3-0 lead came by the end of the first quarter, and even when Corning got on the board, the Warriors kept answering it, eventually building an 8-4 advantage by the end of the third period.
A quartet of players carried the Liverpool attack. Brady Michaud scored four times, with Dom Osbeck adding three goals and one assist. Owen Michaud complemented his pair of goals with three assists and Chris Mattot also had three assists.
Again, though, the story was as much about what went on at the other end of the field. Liverpool’s back line of Braden Seymour, Joe Gravante and Jake Berthoff frustrated Corning most of the way and, once more, Owen Salanger was sensational, facing 21 shots by the Hawks and stopping 16 of them.
Contrasting all the tension of the two large-school regional games was what happened at F-M, starting in Class D with a Marcellus side that toyed with Canton and soared to a 21-4 victory.
The Mustangs earned its 18th win in a row with a ferocious attack that earned double-digit goals, which it has done in each of those 18 wins, getting past the 15-goal mark for the seventh consecutive game.
Adam Rayfield and Donavan Fraher both scored four times, with Rayfield getting four assists and Fraher two assists. Just behind them, Nick Rayfield finished with three goals and four assists.
Others contributed, too, whether it was two-goal outings from Chris Doshna, Jimmy Cox and Connor Ciota or single goals from Dieter Steigerwald, Rory Wiley and Damyn LeClair, with Steigerwald and Wiley joined in the assist column by Ryan Thomson.
J-D, like Marcellus, would repeat as regional champions, managing to top the Mustangs’ goal total in the course of a 22-3 win over Ogdensburg Free Academy.
In four post-season games, the Red Rams have outscored its opponents a combined 83-11, in large part because, even if opposing defenses might know who to guard, they still can’t stifle J-D’s vast skill set, especially when Nick Miller is winning 18 of the 19 face-offs he took.
Against Ogdensburg, it was Graham Kesselring setting a season mark with six goals and three others – Sam Brazell, Brody Kesselring and Lucas Patchen – getting hat tricks, Brazell adding five assists and Brody two assists.
Ryan Babikan piled up four assists as he and Alex Carolin both scored twice. Braeden Baker had three assists as Miller, Zach Hildreth and Sawyer McIntosh had one goal apiece.
Next Wednesday at SUNY-Cortland, a tripleheader of state semifinal games sees Marcellus face Rochester Aquinas at 3 p.m., Liverpool take on Rochester McQuaid at 4 p.m. and, at 6:30, J-D square off with Honeoye Falls-Lima, all Section V teams trying to deny the Mustangs, Warriors and Red Rams spots in the June 8 finals at Hofstra University on Long Island.
