Bees Sting Wildcats 6-5

If it’s true what they say about a cat having nine lives than the West Genesee boys varsity lacrosse team shed one Monday afternoon at Pelcher Arcaro Stadium in Baldwinsville with their first loss of the year 2-1(5-1) 6-5 to the Baldwinsville Bees.
The field conditions at Arcaro stadium were dire to say the least as several balls that had been stepped on during pre-game drills literally had tp be extracted from the sod like turf. Field conditions also left both teams slipping, sliding and fighting for footholds at every turn, which did not bode well for a team that’s played all their games and practiced predominantly on the carpet.

West Genny started out well building an early 1-0 lead at 10:46 when senior captain Luke Cometti beat the Bee’s Jordan Marra on the lower left hand side with an assist to junior midfielder Matt McCabe. Moments later at 7:22 it was Cometti again unassisted to put the Cats up 2-0. The Bees struck back 2-1 with 6:00 left in the quarter with an unassisted goal to Andrew Ginter.

Genny extended their lead to 3-1 on a goal by senior attackman Garrett Ryan with an assist to senior midfielder Ryan McConnell with 10:41 left in the half. Less than two minutes later 8:28 the Bees made it 3-2 shredding the Genny defense with a head twisting fastbreak topped off by a goal from Bill Ward with an assist to Pat Mahar. Ward found the net again 3-3 to tie the game with 1:39 to go as he snuck out from the left, side leapt and fired a shot into the upper corner. Baldwinsville finally capped their three goal run adding a goal from Kevin McNamara with an assist to Ward with just 42 seconds left in the half.

The Cats knotted the game in the third at 4-4 with 8:32 left when Cometti found Ryan open on the crease. Once again the Bee’s bounced back as Tyler Brown fired a shot in the greasy crease that took and akward hop that gave Genny junior goalie two swipes at it but missed both times and it just trickled over the goal line to retake the lead 5-4. Ginter then increased the Bees lead to 6-4 with his second and an assist to Brown with 2:37 to go. Ryan got the Cats back to with in one 6-5 with 1:52 togowith an assist to junior midfielder Conor Regin.

The Cats started the fourth quarter with several good opportunities as Cometti seemed to have found the Bees net with a shot to Marra’s left side, only to see a great sliding kick save by Marra send the ball just wide. Cometti faked his next shot as he neared the goal, and fired a pass instead to a wide open Ryan on the crease in front of Marra which caught both Marra and Ryan by surprise and sailed harmlessly behind the goal. Off a scramble in front the Cats were stymied again as Marra appeared out of nowhere to turn back what seemed to be a sure Genny goal.
With just 1:23 to go Cometti once again was asked to assume the comeback mantle as five of his teammates, starters, watched on the sidelines in warmups due assorted injuries, leaving the shorthanded Cats to count on their Captain. Cometti almost answered the call, as he slid, literally past his defender, beat Marra to the left side, but the shot smacked off the mud and skittered wide.

The Bees retained possesion and hurled the ball down field to the West Genny restraining line where a bevy of sticks including Mahles parried for the ball as it skipped just wide of the net. The ensuing scramble garnered the Bees with a one minute penalty giving Genny one last chance at midfield with 22 seconds in the game. Genny worked the ball around and it was sophomore midfielder John Glesner that took the last shot, but Marra coolly speared the high drive giving the Bees the hard earned victory and setting off a bench clearing celebration.