No comeback this time for Lakers

By Kristin Kowaleski-Wolford / The Citizen

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 11:26 AM EDT

VESTAL - As the clock ticked down under a minute, it became evident - the comeback kids weren't going pull out one more victory.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
Skaneateles goalie Joshua Kimm, right, is approached by teammates Jordan Markley and Kyle Christine, center, after the Lakers lost to Corning East in the NYSPHSAA Class C quarterfinals at Vestal High School, Tuesday.
Though they had notoriously become a second half team throughout the regular season, on their run to becoming Section III, Class C champs and then in the start of the state tournament, the Skaneateles boys lacrosse team fell short of another comeback by about one minute.

Lakers' senior Ian Newland tallied the tying goal with 3:06 left in regulation, completing his team's comeback in a game where they hadn't led since the first quarter. But Section IV champ Corning East took an unfamiliar route to score the winning goal as Trojans' midfielder Ryan Warner hurled a high shot on Laker goalie Josh Kimm with 52.2 seconds left in the game, sinking the goal and the Lakers by a 10-9 score to take the NYSPHSAA Class C quarterfinal game at Dick Hoover Stadium in Vestal, Tuesday.

“I'm speechless,” Warner said of his only goal of the game. “I'm relieved in the sense that I didn't have a good game until that point and I'm just glad that I redeemed myself to help win the game. I'm glad my team ended up with the (win) because they came back hard in the second half.”

The Trojans will move on to play Section V's Penn Yan (14-7) at Coyne Field in Syracuse, Thursday.

Despite out-shooting the Trojans 27-25 in the game, the Lakers took their only lead at the 8:39 mark in the first quarter when Newland scored his first of three goals. Just 1:35 later, Corning East's Matt Pierotti tied the game with one of his five first half scores. Though he led the winning team with six points, the Lakers shut Pierotti down in the second half, holding him to just an assist.

“He might have gotten a little tired,” Trojans coach Bob Streeten said. “That's why we wanted to come back with some other people.”

In a sloppily played first half, where both teams had more than their fair share of turnovers, the Trojans entered halftime with what would have been a comfortable 7-3 lead - against any other team.

“Oh, we definitely doubted ourselves,” Warner said. “We said at halftime that we knew how good of a second half team they were.”

Midway through intermission, a heavy downpour made already wet conditions even worse, but Skaneateles only seemed to thrive. The rain remained steady for most of the second half, and the Lakers shut out the Trojans in the third frame and scored twice to close the gap to just two goals.

When Eric Richard scored his second of three goals with 11:06 left in the game, Skaneateles seemed to be on track for a repeat performance, when it scored six unanswered goals to defeat Section X's Salmon River in the first round of the tournament.

But the Trojans weren't ready to become another Laker victim. Attacker Justin Patterson and Matt Tobia scored back-to-back goals in a three-minute period to put the Trojans' lead at 9-6.

“We'd been in this position a few times before,” Streeten said. “I knew when we got up 9-6 that Skaneateles had no quit in them. Those guys are winners and hard hustlers and we were going to be in for a fight as they fought back. I thought we could hold on and keep from tying it, but the bottom line is that the kids played hard and did some good things for us. That's a very tough Skaneateles team.”

As Tom Schoener and Richards scored on nearly identical shots at the 6:28 and 5:17 marks, it put the Lakers in perfect position to steal another win as Newland delivered the shot past Corning East freshman goalie Tyler White, who grabbed 10 saves overall.

Even though Skaneateles put up a wall defensively for most of the game, an unlikely source slipped through a crack at the most crucial time as Corning's coach made a late adjustment when he saw that Kimm was protecting low.

“It's hard to get kids programmed to shoot low and tell them to shoot high,” Streeten said. “Fortunately, Ryan Warner likes to shoot high.”

Oliver Moore scored a goal and an assist for the Lakers (17-6), while Patrick Emmer had two helpers. Kelly Donigan also scored once, while Schoener added an assist to his goal. Newland and Richards led with a hat trick apiece and an assist.

Kimm had seven saves in the net.

Trojans 10

Lakers 9

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