'Cats Pounce On Pats To Advance

The West Genesee boy's varsity lacrosse team (18-4) rolled to a 13-5 victory in the Upstate Regional game at Corning Memorial Field over Sec. IV representative Binghamton. West Genny led by senior attckman Chris Schmidt's four goals and two assists along with a fantastic defensive effort by senior captains Jaren Woeppel, Mark Kelly,senior Ben Watkins and junior Chris Aubertine led to a seven save performance from junior goalie John Galloway. With the victory West Gensee will travel to CNS Thursday night to play Sec.VI opponent Orchard Park (21-1) in the Regional Semi-Finals, the Cats dispatched OP with ease in Rochester last year 17-2.

The Cats came out of the opening face-off using a calculated offense looking for cracks in the Binghamton zone defense and found enough to open a 4-0 first quarter lead. Genny opened up the scoring at 7:30 when junior attackman Adam Mazzoni shovled in a rebound shot off the stick of junior attackman Collin Donahue past Binghmaton goalie Jon Cortina for a 1-0 lead. West Genny increased their lead to 2-0 at 4:09 when junior attackman Brian Donahue scored on a play that began with a nice clear by Mark Kelly.

With 2:57 to go junior middie Ryan Barber used a Chris Schmidt feed to increase the advantage 3-0. Taking advantage of a Binghamton loose ball push with 45 seconds left in the quarter junior Aaron Printup loosed a shot that Cortina blocked, but could not control the rebound and Schmidt pounced giving Genny a 4-0 cushion going into the second quarter.

The second quarter saw Schmidt pick up where he left off in the first with a goal 45 seconds in with an assist to Adam Mazzoni for a 5-0 lead. Schmidt continued his own personal assault with his third straight goal with 2:00 for 6-0 lead. Binghamton did finally get on the board with a goal by Mike Dicerce to give Binghamton some hope for a stronger second half.

The third quarter saw both team trading goals as a Binghamton goal by Cody Barnes their second goal in a row made the score 6-2. However West Genny put down any thought of a comeback run as junior Tim Desko fired a rocket past Cortina with 9:03 to go increasing the lead to 7-2. Moments later it was junior attackman Collin Donahue extending the advantage to 8-2. Binghamton fought back with their third goal of the quarter as Hunter Burnard answered Donahue and the Cats for a 8-3 game.

Once again it was the Cats fighting back with a Mazzoni goal as he redirected a cross cage feed to extend the lead to 9-4. Refusing to go away Binghamton then answered back as Dicerce netted his second of the game cutting the lead to 9-4

With a final quarter left and the Regional Semi-Finals within reach the Cats made their move with a Desko goal with 10:42 as Binghamton was severing a 30 second hold penalty. Cats senior middie Scott Cost a catalyst in the F-M Sec.III championship game took a feed from Schmidt and put a low bounce shot past Cortina with 8:48 to go to make the score 11-4. Binghamton followed with a final gasp, but it wasn't enough as Desko added his third goal with followed by Brian Donahue goal with 2:16 to go to end the game 13-5.