Fang-Less Cats Mauled by Maroon 5-4

The West Genesee Wildcats boys varsity lacrosse team (9-3)was on the wrong side of history last night on the carpet at West Genesee stadium dropping a 5-4 decision, their second in a row, to the upstart Auburn Maroons (9-2). With the win Aubrun ended 33 years of futility where they had posted a record of 0-49 during that time.
For the second game in a row the Cats were held to under five goals and up until the final quarter where senior captain, midfielder Luke Cometti almost singlehandedly resurrected the game the Cats had only managed six goals in the previous seven quarters and have only netted 13 goals combined in their three losses this season.

The vocal visitors had a lot to cheer about early when senior midfielder Chris Clifford bounced the first shot of the game over junior goalie Steve Mahle’s right shoulder for a 1-0 less than a minute into the game. Auburn continued attacking the Genny goal,but Mahle answered with two saves, the first at 10:11 where he went to his knees and speared a shot off the stick of a diving sophomore attackman Connor Entemann. The next came at 6:28 as he smothered a bouncer off the stick of senior midfielder Mike Fandrich. West Genny would then promptly turnover the ball on subsequent fast breaks forcing Mahle to come up big at 3:11 with another save off of Auburns other sophomore attackman Andrew Chadderdon. The Cats only good scoring chance in the first quarter came with their first shot on goal with 1:38 remaining when sophomore midfielder ‘Cali’ John Glesner, one of the few bright-spots, beamed a low liner that senior Maroon goalie Kevin Dyer went down low to snare.

The second quarter began as the first with Mahle asked to step up again making a save on Fandrich with 9:03 50 go. However Mahle would have no answer for Chadderdon’s second goal as the diminuative attackman slipped by junior defender Joe fazio, and senior defender Ben Waldron who failed to slide giving all the time and space he needed as his point blank shot eluded Mahle at 7:24 for a 2-0 lead.
Auburn would add their next goal 3-0 when Entemann seemingly found an opening where none had existed as his soft shot trickled past Mahle with 6:43 to go.

The Cats finally ended their scoring drought with 4:03 to go in the half as Cometti drove to Dyer‘s left and snuck a shot by to cut the lead to 3-1.Genny threatened again with 2:51 to go, when Cometti found senior attackman Garrett Ryan wide open to Dyer’s left, put Ryan promptly bounced the shot off Dyer’s helmet ending the scoring bid. Auburn then thought they had answered the Cats attempt when Entenmann dove past junior defender Jack Conboy, at the goal and put a shot by Mahle, but the officials wiped the goal away with a crease violation call.

After mustering only seven shots in the first two quarters the Cats continued to dig a hole when Fandrich opened the scoring 4-1 with 6:22 to go on what appeared to be a relatively harmless shot from 20 yards out.

The final stanza began with Auburn scoring their fifth of the game just over 30 seconds in after Entenmann, buzzed by Conboy and put a shot low past Mahle to increase the lead to 5-1. Genny would make a let run starting with 3:45 to go when senior midfielder Tim Besio unleashed a right hander over Dyer’s head to make it 5-2 with an assist to Glesner. Cometti followed with his second,5-3 with 3:14 to go with an assist to junior attackman Matt McCabe.With the Cats clawing their way back it was Entenmann once again coming to Auburn’s aid as he gained possession of the ball and took a huge chunk of time off the clock eluding would-be Genny defenders.

The Cats did manage to get it back and once again and Cometti stepped up netting his third of the night 5-4 with an unassisted effort with only 23 left. Genny won the ensuing face-off and worked down the field as both Cat and Maroon faithful held their breathes, one for the inevitable and the other for the unthinkable and for the Auburn fans it turned into a long awaited celebration as the Cats threw the ball away and could only stand motionless and watched for a second game in a row as the opposing team stormed onto their turf in a celebration reminiscent of a team that just won a State Champion.