The rain made it messy. The rivalry made it matter.
Together, those factors combined to make Friday's boys lacrosse clash between Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool a thriller.
The Northstars were in control for most of the game, but wet conditions allowed the Legends to sneak back and tie the score in the closing minutes.
With the game on the line, C-NS turned to senior attackman Donovan Chaney. Even in a season where the Northstars' deeper attack has cut into his scoring chances, Chaney delivered again, netting his fourth goal of the night to lift C-NS past Liverpool 12-11 in syracuse.com's Game of the Week.
Complete Box Score »
Watch the full game here. Chaney's go-ahead goal occurred at 2:03:15 in the stream.
"The way we play, everyone touches the ball and everyone contributes," C-NS coach Chuck Wilbur said. "That's a big reason why Donovan doesn't have more goals... Today, we went to him, and he came up with a big one. We know any time we need a goal, he's a guy we can go to."
Chaney's stellar performance snapped an impressive streak he had been building. Before Friday's contest, the senior had scored exactly two goals in each of six consecutive games.
Chaney was named syracuse.com's Game of the Week MVP thanks to his four-goal, one-assist performance.
While Liverpool kept it close throughout, there were several times when it seemed that C-NS was going to pull away. Legends senior Chris Matott prevented that from happening. The Fairfield University commit matched his career-high of seven goals in a resilient effort.
"He's a heck of a player," Wilbur said. "he's tough to guard with one guy. We had to play better team defense on him, which I think we started to do a little bit more in the second half... He's a Division I kid for a reason."
C-NS led 10-7 at halftime, but the rain started to come down harder after the break. The Legends took advantage of the inclement weather and shut out the Northstars in the third quarter. Liverpool goalie Anthony Puccia, in particular, was key to the suddenly stifling defense. The freshman finished with 16 saves, turning away over 57% of the shots that came his way.
C-NS (10-0) has now won four straight meetings in the rivalry, having swept all three matchups last season. That includes a sectional quarterfinal matchup that bounced the Legends out of the playoffs.
"It doesn't matter what season it is, what our records are," Wilbur said. "Anytime C-NS and Liverpool play, in any sport, it's always a heck of a game. I think you saw that again today."
The rivals will face off at least one more time this year. Liverpool hosts C-NS in its regular-season finale on May 19.
However, Wilbur knows better than to look that far into the future.
"Our league is so challenging that, you know, you hear the cliché of 'One game at a time,'" Wilbur said. "It's literally what you have to do. If you start looking ahead, you're going to be in trouble because, like tonight, we saw any team could beat you on any night."
C-NS defends its unbeaten record against Fayetteville-Manlius on Tuesday.
