Cats Sharpen Claws Against Hornets 12-5

Dare I say the Cats are back? If tonight’s contest, a 12 - 5 Wildcat victory over the Fayetteville Manlius Hornets at Coyne field on the campus of Syracuse University was any indication of what the Genny faithful can look forward to from here on, well let’s just say it’s been a long time coming, but it felt as good as it looked.

The rejuvenated Cats were running on all cylinders with the reuniting of co-captain Ryan Barber, Tim Fetterly and Jordan Rogers on attack, the first game the triumvirate has seen action together since Dowington East in March. The midfield was led once again, with a stellar performance from co-captain, Henry “Luke” Cometti, Tim Besio and ‘Cali’ John Glesner who helped neutralize Fayetteville’s Hopkins bound senior face-off man Mike Poppleton.

The defense the strength of the Cats all season long, showed up tonight with an extra snarl, led by Ben Waldron, Jack Conboy, Tim Fazio and long stick midfielders, Jack Kennedy and Chris Burns, with junior goalie Steve Mahle putting together his best performance of the season.

The first quarter began with senior co-captain Luke Cometti holding court scoring the first three Wildcat goals of the game. The first 1-0 came with 10:22 left in the quarter, when he twisted his defender using a cut back move and rifled the ball past senior Hornet netminder Chris Miles. Fayetteville’s senior attackman Matt Taylor knotted the game at 1-1 with 8:36 to go, when he bulled by several Genny defenders and slipped one past junior Wildcat goalie Steve Mahle. Cometti retaliated for the Cats netting his second, 2-1 with just the second Wildcat shot of the game with 7:47 to go.

Anthony Krizman a senior FM midfielder made it 2-2 with 5:37 left, after he slid and bounced his way past several Wildcat defenders right into the slot and beat Mahle with a point blank shot. The Hornets next chance came on a 30 second man-up, but a left goal post and timely right foot save by Mahle kept the Hornets off the board. After the penalty time expired FM continued to press and at 2:27 but senior FM midfielder Mike Poppleton was stopped by Mahle who went low to scoop up the shot.
Cometti did the honors ending the quarter as he began it with a running left-hander that found the bottom of the cage for 3-2 lead with 2:09 to go.

The second quarter began with Cometti getting in on the scoring act with a perfect pass to sophomore midfielder John Glesner, who pasted it in the upper left corner 4-2 with 10:25 to go . At 9:56 junior midfielder Ryan McConnell used his speed leaving several Hornet defenders behind an stuck one past Miles left side for a 5-2 lead.
Taylor cut the lead to 5-3 for FM once again muscling to the goal with 7:16 to go. A Wildcat turnover with 6:23 led to a Ron Caputo goal and the Hornets seemed ready to pounce narrowing the margin to 5-4. But Genny answered back at 5:39, 6-4 with senior attackman Tim Fetterly beating his man to the left post, and squeezing a shot past the left post and off the back of Miles helmet and the rout was on.

The next two Genny goals were a direct result of senior co-captain Ryan Barber and the intangibles that he brought to the game. First with 35 seconds to go, Barber sprinted to the sideline, gathered in an errant Wildcat clearing with one hand, found senior midfielder Tim Besio who found Fetterly on the door step, wide open in front of a helpless Miles for a 7-4 lead. With 19 seconds left in the half it was Barber again beating several FM defenders to a loose ball, finding Cometti, who spotted Fetterly and just like that the Cats had doubled their lead 8-4.

The third quarter began with a Genny back breaker as senior defenseman Ben Waldron caught a clearing pass at midfield, stepped over the line and finding no defenders on him, sped to the Hornet goal and fired a bouncer past Miles with 10:55 to go upping the Cats lead to 9-4. Glesner added his second 10-4 with 5:25 to go with a left handed flyer that found rope over Miles left shoulder.

The fourth quarter saw Glesner netting his third 11-4 with 5:30 left in the game with an assist to Fetterly. Genny’s final goal of the game was a perfect capper with just 1:30 left when Cometti, passed to Barber, who drew several defenders, then dished to junior attackman Ike Hopper who slipped it passed Miles for a 12-4 lead
Krizman added a last goal for the Hornets with just 15 seconds but it was to little to late as the Cats put together their best game of the year and a 12 -5 win.