ONONDAGA COUNTY – Back in the Class A ranks again this spring, the West Genesee boys lacrosse team will get to enjoy both regular-season and post-season activity agianst foes who gained championship glory while the Wildcats were in Class B.
This included Baldwinsville, the 2023 and 2024 state champions, who brought a 2-0 record into Tuesday’s showdown at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium that, if it’s any indication, could mean a lively race for top honors by the end of the spring.
Both teams brought potent attacks to this game and found they could not stop one another. But the difference was that WG had a particularly great start which ultimately translated into an 18-16 victory over the Bees.
All through the first quarter the Wildcats kept finding the net at a volume B’ville found impossible to match, not letting up until it had established an 8-3 advantage.
From there, they essentially traded goals through the middle stages, yet the Bees did not make up much ground, still trailing 16-12 going to the fourth quarter and only able to make up half that deficit late.
With his seven goals and one assist, Charlie Lockwood anchored a WG attack where Jake McMahon scored four times and Chace Cogan added three goals. Jacob Pensabene and Nash Oudemool both scored twice, Pensabene adding three assists.
It was also key for goalie Jon Shoults to make 14 saves, five more than Bees counterpart Jake Seefeldt. B’ville was led by Iggy LoMedico’s five goals and two assists, Brady Garcia adding four goals and Ty Lynch three goals plus an assist.
Back at Mike Messere Field that same Tuesday afternoon, WG’s girls also took on B’ville renewing a long-time rivalry with a Bees squad who has improved from a rough 2024 season but still has a lot of youth and growing to do.
The Wildcats beat the Bees 15-7, improving to 5-0 overall with Sophia Lawrence and Molly Doran both going to the forefront.
Lawrence and Doran each netted five goals, with Lawrence adding two assists and Doran one assist. Maria Snyder scored twice, with Maddie Ryder getting a goal and two assists. Allison Kittell also had two assists as Keira Vrabel and Ashleigh Blanding put in WG’s other goals.
All of this was in advance of Saturday’s game against Liverpool and a showdown with reigning state Class A champion Cicero-North Syracuse next Tuesday at Bragman Stadium.
Yet the WG boys would not wait to face Liverpool, doing so Thursday at LHS Stadium in a clash of two defending sectional champions with the Warriors trying to bounce back from an 11-4 defeat to Cicero-North
Syracuse.
The Wildcats, no. 6 in the first state Class A rankings of the season, handled Liverpool 19-10, breaking clear with a 6-1 push through the second quarter as, once again, Lockwood led the way.
Finishing with seven goals, Lockwood tacked on an assist and got a lot of help from Jack Wenham, who augmented a three-goal hat trick by earning four assists.
Pensabene scored four times and tacked on three assists, adding to the depth. McMahon and Jeff Mercer had two goals apiece, Oudemool adding a goal and Cogan grabbing two assists.
