Cats Roll Bees 15-2

Senior night was the setting on the carpet at the West Genesee Wildcats stadium as the Cats (13-3) continued their climb back up the lacrosse ladder with a 15-2 pasting of the Baldwinsville Bees.It was a fitting finish for the twelve senior members of the Wildcats, who were playing their last regular season home game, Mike Fetterly,Tim Besio,Luke Cometti,Owen Alberts, Garrett Ryan, Jack Kennedy, Eric Miccio, Ryan Barber, Ben Waldron, Dan Stapelton, Matt Lebduska, Alex Iannicello and Chris Schneider.

The Bees and Cats traded early scoring opportunities when Baldwinsville’s senior midfielder Andrew Ginter found a seam in the Genny defense at 14:45 but junior goalie Steve Mahle set the tone for the Cats with a solid save. Junior Bees midfielder Tim Hayden then tried to solve Mahle with no luck as his bid was turned aside with 9:35 to go. On the other end senior Bee’s goalie Jordan Marra made back to back saves on senior attackman Matt Lebduska at 7:58 then again on senior midfielder Dan Stapleton at 6:38.

West Genny did find the range first at 4:28 when senior midfielder Tim Besio beat his defender down the left side of the field and fired across cage beating Marra in the bottom right corner to make it 1-0. With 2:56 to go senior midfielder Owen Alberts drove to Marra’s right, then slipped a pass in the slot to a wide open Lebduska, who redirected a one timer past Marra to make it 2-0. The Cats extended the lead to 3-0 with just over a minute in the first quarter when co-captain senior midfielder Henry ‘Luke’ Cometti backed into the left side of the Bee’s goal, spun in the opposite direction and shot low to high, scorching a shot under the cross bar past a flailing Marra. With 49 seconds to go the Cats just missed when junior midfielder Jim Marks beat Marra but found the right post. Genny’s next attempt with 26 seconds to go found the mark when sophomore midfielder, ‘Cali’ John Glesner took a feed from Lebduska and buried it past Marra for a 4-0 lead.

The second quarter began with another Cometti bomb at 10:39 as he shredded the Bee defense with a rip from 25 yards out past Marra off stick side for a 5-0 lead. Glesner then added his second, shedding his defender at 10:14 and tucking the ball into the corner for a 6-0 lead. At 8:41 it was the resurgent Genny attack’s turn as junior Jordan Rogers beat his man, but was pushed from behind, senior co-captain Ryan barber scooped the loose ball and hit Mike Fetterly in front for a 7-0 lead. With 6:52 left in the half the Bees tried to slow down the Cats and Cometti, by shutting him off with a shadow, but he out-manned his coverage and unleashed a right handed side arm shot that ricocheted off the left post and nestled itself in the back of the net for an 8-0 lead.

With 3:46 left junior midfielder Connor Regin ran the ball up-field towards the Bees goal, dished the ball to Jordan who was on his left, who then found a streaking senior long stick midfielder Jack Kennedy, who gathered in the pass and put it past Marra for a 9-0 advantage. With 1:50 to go Cometti again sailed one past Marra for his fourth of the half and the route was on with a 10-0 Finlead.

The third quarter saw the Bees insert goalie Eric Yando with the Cats chasing Marra after just one half, but it was more of the same when senior Garrett Ryan took a feed from Glesner and made it 11-0 with 8:33 to go. With 6:15 to go Cometti netted his fifth with an assist to Besio and the Cats led 12-0. Junior midfielder Ryan Mconnell ripped one for the Cats to make it 13-0 with only 1:29 to go with an assist from Lebduska.

The final quarter began with Rogers converting a Barber pass just 21 seconds in for a 14-0 lead.The Bees added two late goals as the Cats began to sub liberally, but the Cats had the last swipe as Rogers netted his second in a row with an assist to Fetterly for a 15-2 Wildcat romp.