Cortland Standard .net

DeWITT — For 24 minutes, Homer Central boys played well enough to keep Jamesville-DeWitt within striking distance.
Then, the bottom fell out.
The Red Rams scored nine unanswered goals in the second half to turn a 6-3 advantage into a 15-3 OHSL Freedom Division lacrosse rout of the visiting Trojans. American Division leader J-D improves to 5-0 in league play and 9-1 overall. National Division leader Homer falls to 5-1, 6-4 overall.
“We had more offensive chances in the first half,” Homer coach Tom Cottrell said. “We got good looks, won face-offs and had good possessions. We felt like we were in the game. Even though we struggled some on defense, we made enough plays.
“We just did not play good in the second half,” he added. “We won six-of-nine face-offs in the first half, but just one-of-five in the third quarter. As a coaching staff, we could not figure out what happened in the second half.”
Homer grabbed a 1-0 lead on a man-up goal 27 seconds into the game. Brody Urban converted a feed from Anthony Basile.
J-D countered with four straight goals to close out the first quarter. Anthony DiGiovanni tied the game at 1-1 with 10:11 left in the first quarter. Ryan Durkin assisted on the goal and he put the Red Rams in front with 5:44 left in the quarter. Griffin Cook made it 3-1 with 1:02 on the clock and Grayson Burns tallied with one second of the clock for the 4-1 advantage.
The two teams traded goals in the second quarter. Cook got a man-up goal in the first minute of the quarter. Basile countered for the Trojans three minutes later with goalie Matt Suits credited with the assist. Cook scored again with 3:48 left in the half, but Riley closed out the half with an assist from Danny Turck with 14 ticks remaining. That was the final bright spot.
The Red Rams poured in four goals in the third quarter. Five goals in the fourth quarter completed the Jamesville-DeWitt rout.
Cook finished with three goals and three assists to pace the J-D offensive attack. Ryan Archer added three goals while Durkin (two assists), DiGiovanni (one assist) and Burns netted two goals each.
Homer has little time to dwell on the loss. The Trojans host Chittenango tonight at seven o’clock with a 5 p.m. JV contest.