ONONDAGA CC 14, HERKIMER COUNTY CC 8

HERKIMER, N.Y. — After a turbulent week on campus, the Lazers of Onondaga Community College were relieved to get back on the field over the weekend. Taking home a fourth consecutive Region III championship made the break that much sweeter.

“This was kind of a vacation,” Onondaga coach Chuck Wilbur said after his squad’s 14-8 victory over Herkimer County Community College, his alma mater, in Sunday’s championship game at Wehrum Stadium. “Lacrosse is one thing that’s fun to us and we haven’t had a lot of fun the last week.”

The Onondaga campus was shocked last week by the arrest of Kent Hill, a star on the Lazers’ 2006 and 2007 national championship teams, on charges related to the strangling death of a pregnant woman in Canada.

“Today and yesterday gave us four hours to get back to doing something we enjoy, to get away from the distractions,” Wilbur said.

The Lazers (16-1) did not look at all distracted in their rematch with the only team that has beaten them over the last three years. Onondaga scored the first seven goals Sunday and never trailed while avenging a 14-19 loss at home in April.

“They got a jump on us, caught us back on our heels a bit,” Herkimer coach Rich Dommer said. “... When we got down two, three, four goals we were still O.K. When it got to six we started looking at some of the guys for a spark.”

Vinnie Alexander, Scott Cost and Ed Prevost each had two goals before Herkimer finally got on the board in the middle of the second quarter. Onondaga went a man down and Justin Hayes netted the first Herkimer goal 18 seconds later with an assist from Kevin Kemp.

J.P. Finn added a goal after Hayes scored and Kemp tallied with 7.3 seconds left in the half to make the score 8-3. The generals’ attempts to catch up were thwarted by the inability to put a scoring run together; they never scored more than two goals in succession and they never got closer than four goals. Back-to-back goals scored by Hayes and Jake Koch made the scored 9-5 in the middle of the third quarter and Koch and Hayes went back-to-back again in the fourth to make the score 12-8. Holdon Vyse, the younger brother of former Herkimer standout Roger Vyse, added the final two goals to Onondaga’s total.

The Lazers got a strong performance from goalie Andy Lamb who made 18 saves and earned the regional tournament’s most valuable player honor.

“Andy Lamb played great,” Dommer said, “but we made him look good. Our shots weren’t well placed.”

Zach Bates countered with 21 saves for the Generals.

Hayes scored three goals and assisted on a fourth to lead the Herkimer attack. Koch also scored three goals, Kemp had a goal and two assists and Dave Brock returned to the lineup with three assists after sitting out of Herkimer’s semifinal victory.

Prevost had three goals and four assists for Onondaga. Four other Lazers scored two goals.

The Generals and Lazers could meet one more time. Herkimer will join Onondaga at Nassau Community College for next weekend’s NJCAA Final Four as a wild card and the No. 2 seed.

“This does not hurt our confidence at all,” Dommer said. “We know we could see these guys again and now it’s 1-1. Hopefully we can get the next one if we get the opportunity.”

Onondaga takes on Nassau in one semifinal Saturday and Herkimer meets the Community College of Baltimore County’s Essex Knights in the other. Herkimer defeated Essex 17-14 at home April 26.

Herkimer and Onondaga advanced to the regional championship game with matching 19-8 victories in Saturday’s semifinals. Koch scored four goals, Doug Hoch added three and Hayes had a goal and six assists for the Generals against Monroe Community College.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Andy Lamb, Onondaga CC

TOURNAMENT ALL-STARS

Zach Bates, Herkimer County CC

Marc DeJordy, Hudson Valley CC

Justin Hayes, Herkimer County CC

Dan Hinderland, Monroe CC

Cody Johnson, Onondaga CC

Jake Koch, Herkimer County CC

Padric McKendry, Onondaga CC

Ed Prevost, Onondaga CC

Brandon Phelps, Herkimer County CC

Holdon Vyse, Onondaga CC

ONONDAGA CC 14, HERKIMER COUNTY CC 8 (Sunday’s Region III championship)

Onondaga CC    4   4   3   3 — 14

Herkimer County CC    0   3   3   2 — 8

ONONDAGA CC (16-1) — Ed Prevost 3 goals-4 assists; Vinnie Alexander 2-1; Holdon Vyse 2-1; Scott Cost 2-0; Kevin Wilkerson 2-0; Cody Johnson 1-0; Jordan Loftus 1-0; Ryan Degerdon 0-1; Logan Kane 0-1; Joe Tayler 0-1. Goalie: Andy Lamb 18 saves.

HERKIMER COUNTY CC (15-2) — Justin Hayes 3 goals-1 assist; Jake Koch 3-0; Kevin Kemp 1-2; Dave Brock 0-3; J.P. Finn 1-1; Doug Hoch 0-1. Goalie: Zach Bates 21 saves.

HERKIMER COUNTY CC 19, MONROE CC 8 (Saturday’s Region III semifinal)

Monroe CC    3   0   1   4 — 8

Herkimer County CC    4   9   4   2 — 19

MONROE CC (10-6) — Dan Hinderland 4 goals-0 assists; Lantz Carter 2-0; Kurt Detwiler 1-0; Jake Fricano 1-0; Cory Bottiglier 0-1; Rob Wilcox 0-1. Goalie: Matt McShea 22 saves.

HERKIMER COUNTY CC (15-1) — Justin Hayes 1 goal-6 assists; Jake Koch 4-0; Kevin Kemp 2-2; Doug Hoch 3-0; Billy Bushell 1-2; Chase Dominick 2-0; J.P. Finn 2-0; Justin Gill 2-0; David Limbouris 2-0; Patrick Sullivan 0-1; Andrew Wolfe 0-1. Goalie: Zach Bates 11 saves.

Compiled From Evening Times Staff Reports