Second Half Awakening Sparks 'Cats

The West Genesee Wildcats used a half time re-awakening to come back from a deadlocked and low score at halftime to pounce on the visiting Bee's from Baldwinsville for a 10-3 victory. The win was the 8th on the season for the No. 1 state and nationally ranked 'Cats and 39th in a row dating back to the 2004 season.

As has been the case for most games this season, Genny wasted little time in putting up the first points of the game. Senior attacker Chris Schmidt picked up where he left off after a six goal performance against Oswego two days earlier and tallied at the 11:18 mark after taking a pass coming in from the right side of the cage and ripped a left-hander past Bees goalie Andy Lamb to take the 1-0 lead. Senior middie Scott Cost followed up by driving in from just inside the restraining line, dodged past his defender who fell to the ground and whipped a shot just over the left shoulder of Lamb at the 7:46 mark to push the 'Cats out to a 2-0 lead.

Baldwinsville got on the board with 2:02 remaining when Jermey Boltus fired a turn-around shot from just left of junior goalie John Galloway to cut the lead in half. The Bee's took the momentum gained from Boltus's goal and again capitalized when Cam Davoy cut down the slot and placed a shot just over the right shoulder of Galloway to knot the game at two a piece with 14 seconds remaining...and the Bees and their faithful were buzzing.

Both Galloway and Lamb put up rock wall performances throughout the game, many of the point blank or second chance variety to keep the contest a low scoring affair. The Wildcats finally got some spark when sophomore middie Luke Cometti penetrated to draw coverage and dished off to Chris Schmidt to the left of the cage where he rightly redirected the ball to back of the net to put the 'Cats up 3-2. In a bizarre set of circumstances Genny senior middie Kevin Courtney took a shot which hit the inside of left post which rebounded back out to him. As momentum carried him forward and seeing a teammate off to his left he flicked the ball towards him only to be intercepted and returned the length of the field where Corey Bulken caught the 'Cats in transition and tied the score, ending the half at 3-3 with momentum seemingly in the Bees favor.

Whatever coach Mike Messere said to the team at the half or whatever the Wildcats used to motivate themselves directly should be bottled and used for every game the rest of the season. It took nearly 5 minutes but junior middie Joe Pompo got things started by charging up the middle and and found Schmidt again stealthily approaching the crease area. Schmidt again capitalized with a quick release to notch his 3rd goal of the game to again put the 'Cats out front where they would never look back. Despite Baldwinsville trying to take advantage throughout the day of the 'Cats inability to both capitalize on the draw or come up with the ball from the wings, another stellar performance by "Galloway-Woepple and Company, Inc." helped thwart any mounting of a comeback on this day. With his efforts, Galloway ended up with his third 18 save performance of the season.

junior middie Tim Desko kept things going off a nice feed from junior attacker Adam Mazzoni when he launched a left-handed rocket from the restraining line that popped the net for a 5-3 lead with 6:12 remaining. A little over a minute later, Scott Cost kept things going when he charged hard to the cage one on one with his defender and unleashed a shot that entered the goal just under the cross bar and the lead was doubled to 6-3. With 1:38 remaining junior middie Joe Pompo netted the final goal of the period when he charged in ripping a left-handed shot which struck pay dirt for the 'Cats pushing them out to the largest lead of the day at 7-3.

The fourth started off with a flash of dominance when senior defender Jaren Woeppel, whose defensive play goes without question, recently has found himself taking face-off draws and now apparently has become an offensive threat! Woepple advanced a clear off yet another Genny defensive denial, took off and never looked back blowing past numerous defenders as Messere yelled from the sidelines to "settle it" to no avail. "Mr. Versatility" then launched at 10 yard shot which whipped by B'ville backup goaltender Ryan Doyle for an 8-3 lead only 27 seconds into the period. Junior attack Collin Donahue then fed Cometti as he cut down to the left side of the cage and Cometti promptly disposed of the ball to the net for a 9-3 lead with 9:58 remaining. Running off an isolation play, sophomore middie Ryan Barber went one on one with his defender leaving him trailing behind as he hit third gear, and fired in his first goal of the day and the final goal for the Wildcats to make the score 10-3.