Wildcats Swat Hornets 10-5


The West Genesee Wildcats (2-0) captured their 34 straight Class A game with 10-5 victory over the Fayetteville Manlius Hornets (1-1).The game played before a group of hearty fans who withstood unseasonably cold temperatures at Coyne Field on the campus of Syracuse University.

Unlike the Cats previous game against Cicero-North Syracuse they started out quickly with five consecutive goals to take a 5-0 lead. Sophomore middie Luke Cometti started the scoring 1-0 for Genny at 8:43 with a left hand shot that beat F-M senior goalie Kevin Fountain off stick side.

The Cats next goal came at 6:34 by way of some good old fashion hustle when junior attackmen Adam Mazzoni and senior Chris Schmidt fought several Hornets for a loose ball behind the goal. Schmidt gathered the ball, turned the left corner of the and found senior middie   Joe Pompo who took the pass and stuck it in the right side of net past Fountain for a 2-0 lead.

Genny's next three goals came by way of senior attackman Collin Donahue. The first at 6:05 when he cut in front of the crease, took a feed from Cometti, spun and shot past Fountain to make the score 3-0. Donahue then followed with an unassisted tally at 3:58 to stretch the lead to 4-0. Donahue's final tally came when he snuck around the left corner of the goal, slung a low left handed shot that Fountain partially stopped, but the ball trickled under the lip of his stick for a 5-0 first quarter advantage. The Hornets did strike back with their lone goal 5-1 of the quarter at 1:58 when senior middie Nate Tucker skipped a shot stick side past junior goalie John Galloway.

Wakened by their late first quarter tally, the Hornets wasted little time in the second quarter by polishing off a Wildcat like fast break as senior attckmen   Adam Golberg and Adam Drypolcher combined to cut the lead to 5-2 with just 14 seconds gone in the second.

The Hornets nearly struck again moments later at 10:16 when Tucker zipped a shot past Galloway's left shoulder, but was met by a loud smack as the ball careened off the post out to midfield.

With the Hornets buzzing, Cats senior middie Matt Grogan used a nice one on one roll dodge to beat his defender and bounce a shot past Fountain at 8:55 to extend the lead to 6-2. However Fayetteville's Tucker continued to give the Hornets wings at 8:26 by converting a pass from senior middie Chris Cappuccilli, bouncing a shot past Galloway, halving the lead to 6-3.

The Cats did end the Hornet run and scoring in the first half with an unassisted tally by senior middie Scott Cost at 5:12 when he drilled a shot into the top left hand corner of the goal for a 7-3 half time advantage.

The third quarter belonged solely to the Hornets as they possesd the ball for nearly four minutes in a row. Fayetteville   capitalized   on senior Chris Izant's goal as the long stick defender lumbered past several would be Genny defenders before bouncing a shot past Galloway to cut the lead to 7-4 at 9:51.

Fayetteville's next goal at 5:20 came by way of two consecutive failed clears by the Cats before senior middie Ben Conger unleashed a shot, untouched just inside the restraining line past Galloway bringing the Hornet faithful to their feat and F-M one goal closer 7-5. Pushing to cut deeper into the Cat lead Tucker tried to notch another goal with just 51 seconds to go but was turned away by Galloway who dropped to the turf to smother the shot.

The Cats finally stemmed the Hornet tide, when sophomore middie Ryan Barber cut loose with a right handed blast that found it's way into upper right hand corner of the Hornet net with just 14 seconds left in the third quarter for an 8-5 lead.

The fourth quarter saw the only two goals come by way of Genny sticks the first at 7:46 when Mazzoni took a feed from Schmidt and tucked it in the bottom corner of the cage for a 9-5 lead. Then it was junior Brian Donahue capturing his first varsity goal as he finished off a fast break with an assist from Barber with just 1:29 left to cap the scoring and the game at 10-5.