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Cats
Pounce Past Warriors 6 - 3
What a difference a week makes! At this time last week the Cats were slinking back
to their bus with their tails between their legs having barley out lasted
a gritty Liverpool warrior team with a 6-5 OT victory.But Genny 4-0 (11-0) redeemed
itself at home in front of a packed house on a night made for lacrosse
with an impressive 6 - 3 win over visiting Liverpool.
Genny tried striking early when senior attackman Tim Spillett found himself alone
in front of the Pool goal but his shot was snared by senior goalie Pat " Shrek" Sullivan
who at 6'6" 275 afforded the Wildcats precious little net to shoot at. The
Cats next chance came when senior middie Tim Griffin made a sneaky move, tucked
his stick from right to left slid past the Pool defender only to be met by Sullivan
who bent low to snare the shot. Genny continued to apply pressure as Spillett
found senior attackmate Jeff Ryan in front but Ryan slipped while shooting and
the ball skipped wide of the cage.
Genny finally did find a hole in the Pool defense with their relentless pressure
as senior middie Mark Cometti literally left his defender in a heap with a great
fake, fed Ryan behind who found Spillet camped alone off to Sullivan's left side
and could only watch as Spillet's redirect found it's way home at 5:31
for a 1-0 lead. West Genny's continued to pressure Liverpool which led to their
second goal of the night as the Warriors were called for back to back penalties
which led to senior attackman Dave Osier placing a perfect cross cage feed to
Ryan who stood all alone just outside the crease and one timed a shot past Sullivan
before he had the chance to slide for a 2-0 lead with 3:56 in the quarter. The
Cats closed out the scoring 3 - 0 with 1:44 left as Spillet found a wide open
Ryan who's one time redirect this time left Sullivan with nothing to
do except scoop the ball out of the cage for the next face-off.
Liverpool's first and only legitimate threat of the first quarter came with just 35
seconds left as senior defenders Sean Leahy, Steve Prosonic, long-stick midde
Marc Cizenski and junior Jaren Woeppel refused to give any ground early. But
on the one occasion that the Pool did get a chance by senior middie Kevin
Klizczewicz whose sweeping move to right found him on the doorstep, senior Genny
goalie Dan McKeon calmly dipped his stick to his right and picked shot out of
the air preserving their lead. Genny pushed to increase the lead early in the
second quarter but it was Sullivan who took turns stopping Tim and Brian Sullivan
back to back to keep Liverpool in the game.
The Cats finally found another crack in Sullivan's armor when Leahy decided to
get into the mix and took a feed in the crease from Osier before flipping to
Spillett who made it 4 - 0 with 4:20 left to go. West Genesee's final goal of
the half came with just 49 seconds left by way of a tenacious ride by Ryan who
ran down three separate Liverpool players from sideline to sideline who were
attempting to clear the ball which led a turnover that was scooped up by Cometti
just outside the restraining line. Commetti charged to the goal and turned to
flip to an oncoming Ryan who snapped the twine with his third goal of the half
and a 5-0 advantage.
Unlike the first half Liverpool came out of the gate at full stride in the third
peppering Mckeon with several difficult shots but the Cat netminder showed he
had more than nine lives with several brilliant saves. The first came at 10:36
as Genny found themselves a man down allowing Liverpool's senior middie Adam
Prefitt to fire a right handed point blank rocket goalward only to have McKeon
go to his knees and direct the shot wide. At 9:18 it was McKeon hustling again
as he beat Liverpool to the end line after a missed shot to give Genny back the
ball. Mckeon then continued to shine, calmly snaring a high bouncer fired by
Pool juinor middie Erik Baranowski.
Watching McKeon's mastery of the goal one couldn't begin to imagine that he could
out do himself, wrong. With 4:40 to go and the Liverpool zone defense keeping
the Cats artillery at bay it was senior Liverpool defender Matt Szczesniak who
rumbled down the sideline bouncing off of two would be wildcat defenders before
finding wide open senior attackman Dan Hettler. Hettler snared the pass
took several steps to the goal and fired a shot to the upper left corner of the
cage, McKeon lept in the air and angled his left elbow out at the exact instant
the ball appeared to be goal bound and deflected the shot wide of the cage. Livepool
finally did find a crease in McKeon's defense but it took a very uncharacteristic
to many men on the field penalty to do it. With Genny a man down senior attckman
Brian Cronise slipped by the Genny defense went airborne and fired at shot into
the goal cutting the lead to 5-1.
Genny seemed as if they may have solved the Liverpool zone early in the fourth
quarter with a goal by Tim Griffin who snuck to the cage and took a Ryan feed
at 10:12 to give Genny a 6-1 lead. But it was Liverpool who continued to carry the
momentum as Perfitt scored two goals a little over two minutes apart to halve
the lead to 6-3 with just over six minutes to go. Cometti turned in the Cats
last gasp, but his shot caromed off the cross bar setting up Liverpools last
stand. The Warriors last chance came by way of a West Genesee penalty with 1:15
to go but once again it was McKeon who got in the last word finally getting the
best of Perfitt with the final save of the game with 1:05 to go preserving the
Cats 6-3 victory.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
final |
| West Genesse |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
| Liverpool |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
D. Osier 0-1, Cometti 0-1, Ryan 3-2,
Spillett 2-1, T. Griffin 1-0, Leahy 0-1
SAVES: McKeon 11
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| Click on an image
below to view a game highlight Quicktime movie |
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| Tim Spillett from the doorstep |
...and Jeff Ryan from the same place |
Dan McKeon stuffs the Warriors |
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| Jeff Ryan makes the Warriors pay |
Tim Spillett gets his second |
Tim Griffin tallies the last goal for
the 'Cats |
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