Cazenovia boys lacrosse gets big win over Westhill

By PHil Blackwell

With its newly combined forces, the Cazenovia boys lacrosse team is poised to move up to Class C for the Section III playoffs, where its task may involve trying to dethrone defending champion Westhill.

If that proves the case, the Lakers will go in there with a whole lot of confidence stemming from last Tuesday night’s impressive 12-3 victory on its home turf. Westhill entered this game sporting a 5-1 record, but ran into a dominant Cazenovia defense that managed to shut out the visitors for the entire first half.

Tyson Fredericksen, Jed Olkowski, Cole Frazee and others never let Westhill get comfortable, and when shots were taken, Tucker Ives grabbed them, eventually getting 10 saves.

Meanwhile, the Lakers grabbed a 6-0 advantage by halftime and kept going largely due to the duo of Brendon Barnard and Forrest Ives. Barnard scored five times, while Ives had four goals and one assist, also grabbing seven ground balls.

D.B. Falge chimed in with a pair of goals and Tom Navin converted, too, while Bryson Weaver was able to win six of the 16 face-offs he took.

Now Cazenovia would challenge itself Saturday against Class A’s Cicero-North Syracuse, whose only defeat this season was to reigning state Class A champion Baldwinsville.

In this game, the Lakers had a host of opportunities, but could not quite capitalize on all of them, resulting in an 11-8 defeat to the Northstars.

More than half the shots Cazenovia took got stopped by C-NS goalie Leyton Sullivan, who made 15 saves, even as Forrest Ives got three goals, with Barnard and Alex Kuper getting two goals apiece and Barnard adding four assists.

The only other goal went to Falge, who added an assist. Despite nine saves of his own, Tucker Ives watched as C-NS’s Ian Leahey (five goals, one assist) and Mason Ciciarelli (three goals, one assist) carried that side to victory.

Cazenovia has also added a game to its schedule, hosting Chenango Forks Saturday, May 13 at 11 a.m. at the Sean Goggin Sports Complex. Of far bigger importance, though, was Tuesday’s attempt by the Lakers to upend undefeated (8-0) Marcellus as a stretch of six straight road games continues Saturday at Central Square.