As a mid-season treat, the Fayetteville-Manlius and East Syracuse-Minoa boys lacrosse teams met on the same field on a hot Saturday afternoon that hinted of summer. And the Hornets wasted little time taking control, leading most of the way as it put together a 16-6 victory over the Spartans. F-M notched six goals in the first quarter alone, and though the pace cooled in the second period, it shut out ESM in the third quarter to move the margin to 13-4. Ari Waffle and Mike O’Neil each scored four times on the Hornets’ behalf, while Matt Taylor and Justin DePalma each had two goals and three assists. Chris Walsh also found the net twice, as Mike Poppleton and Glen Trachtenberg also scored. Brendan Englert, Jim Dittmer and Taylor Gebhardt earned assists. On the Spartans’ side, James Chayka and Mike Cummings earned two goals apiece as Andrew Raymond and Tom Petterelli landed single goals. Quadear Mike added an assist. Matt Letcher played most of the game in the net, recording 13 saves. Prior to that, both the Hornets and Spartans were quite busy, with two games apiece. And none were more important than F-M hanging on Thursday night for a huge 7-6 victory over the Auburn Maroons. Both teams came into the game with equal 6-1 marks, but it was the Hornets controlling the first half. Even with Matt Taylor kept quiet, the Hornets used a balanced attack to steadily build a 6-2 margin by the time they hit the break. Auburn made great defensive adjustments and shut out the Hornets in the fourth quarter, giving them plenty of time to catch up. However, Alex Cameron-Carter, Jake Cooper, Max Cooper and the rest of F-M’s back line put up just enough resistance to help their team hang on. Stefan Basile worked in the goal and earned 10 saves. Poppleton was the lone F-M player to score twice. O’Neil, Waffle, Tim Beach, Ron Caputo and Will Reznikov each had one goal, with DePalma earning two assists. Auburn saw Chris Porten and Brian Church each get two goals, with Connor Entenmann and Andrew Chadderdon (each with one goal and two assists) offering help. F-M defended its home field last Tuesday with a 17-7 victory over Oswego, which proved to be a steady effort. The Hornets got at least four goals in each period, setting a torrid pace the Buccaneers could not keep up with. F-M’s defense improved, too, shutting out Oswego in the fourth quarter as an exclamation point. Offensively, the balance was close to perfect. O’Neil, Waffle and Caputo each had three goals, set up by the likes of Taylor and DePalma, each of whom had two goals and three assists. Poppleton (two goals, two assists) helped, too, as Reznikov earned two goals and one assist. As this was going on, ESM was fighting hard against Cortland, but doing enough to earn an 8-6 victory over the Purple Tigers. The Spartans led 3-1 after one period and survived a second-quarter drought to extend its margin to 5-3, even as Cortland tried to slow the tempo down. During an action-filled fourth quarter, ESM kept up, and kept its lead, too. Cummings led with three goals and two assists. Smith and Mike each scored twice, with Petterelli adding a goal and two assists. Ken Cannon joined Smith in the assist column. Two nights later, the Spartans outscored Fulton 17-12, doing most of its damage in an 11-3 first half before the Red Raiders made a spirited late rally and made it close. Chayka returned to form, with four goals and one assist, as Cummings and Mike each got three goals. Cannon and James Landry earned two goals apiece, with Petterelli earning a goal and two assists. Smith and Marc Sacco also scored. For Fulton, Brett Williams (three goals, two assists) and Chad Smith (three goals, one assist) led the push.