‘Cats Humble Bees
Conklin, Cassalia, Dabrowski and DEFENSE powers Genny

The West Genesee Wildcats appeared to be running like a fine tuned machine at the right time of the season with a dominating semi-final win against the Baldwinsville Bees at Syracuse University’s Coyne Field. Eleven ‘Cats got in the scoring column as they geared up for a State Playoff run in 2002. The game was played in overcast, muggy conditions, which steadily deteriorated from intermittent showers to steady rain. The Wildcats entered the stadium obviously pumped for the occasion with an extra spring in their step and vocal encouragement throughout warm-ups.

The first quarter began with neither team able to maintain consistent control of the ball through theng 4 minutes of the contest and each team fruitlessly exchanging possession numerous times. Early on, sophomore Andrew Hanover had two early opportunities to put the Cats on the board only to be stopped by Bees junior net-minder Nick Fiorentino and a defensive struggle appeared to be in store. The "defensive struggle" did not last long as junior middie Matt Cassalia tallied the first goal of the contest with a quick bounce shot from the left side of the cage at the 6:53 mark. B’ville could not get into any offensive flow and Genny’s "tenacious D" closed down lanes and regularly got their stick on many Bees’ passing attempts throughout the entire contest. Sophomore middie Paul Richards had what proved to be closest Baldwinsville would come to a goal for a long time when he had a deflected shot careen off the right post. Senior attackman Mike Conklin regularly had his way around the cage during the evening and at the 4:12 mark chalked up his first goal of the game.

With 3 minutes left in the quarter, Genny found themselves in a man-down situation when junior defenseman Brian Calabrese intercepted a pass in front of Casey Rotella. Calabrese took the rock the length of the field. and found a wideMike Conklin with a beautiful cross field pass who in turn placed his second goal in the back of the cage at the 2:35 mark. The Genny defense came up big once again as Senior Chad Clark picked yet another pass out of the air and quickly found Cassalia streaking up the center of the field. Cassalia then found Sophomore Andrew Hanover who would not be denied a third time when he bounced a 15-yard shot past Fiorentino. Just when the Bees thought they might be safe, Georgetown-bound defenseman Rob Lemos knocked down another B’ville pass and took off down field. With 2 seconds remaining, Lemos found a widejunior attackman Drew Dabrowski camped out to the left of the goal who easily blasted a shot past Fiorentino to end the quarter and give Genny a 5-0 lead.

Andrew Hanoverd the scoring for the Cats 40 seconds into the second with another bounce shot from 5 yards out. Soon after, Hobart-bound attackman Mike Conklin dumped his third goal in the net from the crease line on a sweet quick pass and assist served up from Hanover. Matt Cassalia’s grit and hustle forced out defender Rick Harvey and allowed for Genny to keep possession. Senior middie Devin Burgoon then set up Dabrowski with his second goal of the evening with 7:38 left on the clock. An errant clear by B’ville was picked up 30 yards out by Drew Dabrowski, alone and without a dancing partner, he blasted a shot to the top of the cage to officiallythe flood gates on the Bees as the skyd with a steady rain beginning to fall.

Junior middie Matt Cassalia consistently dominated the face off circle throughout the evening and eventually resulted in two goals within a 15 second span. Senior middies Matt Woolshlager and Devin Burgoon each had individual efforts at the 4:50 and 4:34 marks respectively that put the Cats up 11-0. Baldwinsville seemed to finally find themselves…and the back of the net as they reeled off three straight goals by Ryan Coomey, Rob Needle and a man-up goal by Sean Peirson within 43 seconds to close the gap to 11-3. Cassalia would have none of that and once again pulled off his patented face off draw followed by a nice 10-yard bounce shot at the 2:07 mark and finding the net 23 seconds later for his third goal of the game with an assist from Burgoon. The second period ended with Drew Dabrowski backing up a Mike Conklin shot and in turn returned a quick pass back to Conklin who planted his 4th goal and a 14-3 halftime lead.

Footing seemed to be a problem for both teams but B’ville also developed a case of the "dropsy’s" as the showers turned to steady rain as the third quarterd. Cassaliad the scoring with a beautifully placed top right corner shot with the assist to Drew Dabrowski with 10:28 remaining. With 6:00 minutes to go, Dabrowski found Conklin hanging out on the doorstep with the door widewhere he notched his 5th of the night. At the 5:23 mark senior attackman Jake Bebee orchestrated a perfect fast break opportunity as Hanover tallied his second goal. Sophomore Bees middie Paul Richards put number 4 on the board to cut the deficit to13 at 17-4.. With 1:12 left senior middie Matt O’Connell found a streaking Drew Dabrowskifor a 18-4 third quarter lead.

The 4th quarter saw the rain turn to a downpour…no, make that a monsoon for most of the remaining period. The Bee’s Richards aided by sheets of rain and the Coyne Field lights again struck paydirt as he blasted one high past junior net minder Casey Rotella at the 10:51 mark. Hanover notched his 4th goal of the night after taking a pass from O’Connell, making a nice cut and positioning himself in front of B’ville back-up goalie Tim Neer to make it 19-5. With 6:43 remaining Richards tallied his third of the game and last the Bees would register. Cazenovia-bound attackman Alex Cost cranked it up from the right side and fired a rocket to make it 20-6 with 5:40 to go. Two minutes later Jake Bebee bulled past Bee’s defender Rick Harvey after taking his stick to the face and jammed one past Neer for a 21-6 lead. With 2:30 to go Alex Cost found Bebee widein front of the cage and rifled a 20-yard pass resulting in the final goal of the contest.

West Genny now marches on to face the Henninger Black Knights for the third time this season for the Section 3 crown on Saturday evening at 7:30 PM.

West Genesee scoring:
Mike Conklin 5 goals, Andrew Hanover 4 goals, 2 assists, Drew Dabrowski 4 goals, 2 assists, Matt Cassalia 4 goals, 1 assist, Devin Burgoon 1 goal, 2 assists, Alex Cost 1 goal, 1 assist, Jake Bebee 2 goals, 1 assist, Matt Woolshlager 1 goal, Brian Calabrese 1 assist, Rob Lemos 1 assist, Matt O’Connell 1 assist

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