Canandaigua's boys lacrosse team is not an outfit that anyone wants to me tangling with right about now. The Braves, ranked fourth in Class B by the New York State Spowrtswriters Association, started the season 2-2 — more on that in a moment — but have mowed down 17 in a row since.

   The latest was a 17-6 domination of Irondequoit in the Section 5 Class B championship game yesterday. Senior Marshall Johnson owned the faceoff X, winning 17 of 18 draws, and junior attackman Deven Alves scored five goals.

   "It s a heck of a thing what Marshall does," Canandaigua coach Ed Mulheron told the Democrat and Chronicle. "But Marshall isn't going to win every one and tonight our wing guys were outstanding. Of the 50-50 balls, I'll bet we won 80 percent of those."

   Canandaigua opened the season by playing 30 solid minutes in frigid temperatures and monsoon-like precipitation at Orchard Park (No. 4 in Class A) only to lose on literally a last-second goal by Jeff Tundo and lost two weeks later against a Corning East team that was clicking on the proverbial all cylinders right from the start of the season.

   But the Braves, who gave West Genesee a scare in the 2008 state semifinals, have been rolling along since. The ledger includes a 10-6 victory at Hambrug, their NYSPHSAA quarterfinals opponent on Tuesday. And now they're come off a second straight thuumping of a youngish but tradition-laden Irondequoit team (both played in Class A in 2008) in a sectional final.

   "We've been working hard and we had a feeling that we were going to win this year," Alves said. "We have so much depth, so many guys who can play."

   Section 6 finals: Class A Orchard Park won its 15th straight Section 6 boys lacrosse title (topping Frontier, 17-3), Class B Hamburg won its third straight (beating Sweet Home, 14-6) and Class C Silver Creek (edging Gowanda, 9-8) won with just 10 players to advance to the state quarterfinals.

   "We dug down deep in our hearts and we pulled something out,” said sophomore Zach Williams of Silver Creek, which brought only one subsitute to the game but did not use him. "We only had 10 guys running — I give a lot of credit to our team. This team’s got a lot of heart.”

   It was the sixth straight victory for Silver Creek, which hasn't had more than 13 players available all season.

   "These were the cards we were dealt," Silver Creek coach Bill Brennan told The Buffalo News. "And when I see my boys out there, I see men. I see hard-working men who look out for one another and just play this game like they’ve been playing."

   (See Wednesday's blog for more on Silver Creek's heroics.)

   By the way, Orchard Park coach Gene Tundo missed the game because he is assisting this weekend as part of tomorrow's New Jersey vs. Northeast All-Star Classic football game, so assistant Larry Catalano ran the team.

   More boys lacrosse: Matt Osgood scored six goals in the Class C final as Penn Yan earned its 12th straight

Section 5 championship with a 10-7 victory over Livonia. Osgood has 84 goals for the season.

   West Genesee improvised a hidden-ball trick not even in coach Mike Messere's playbook, setting up junior midfielder John Glesener's goal to break a tie with 3:18 to play, highlighting an 11-9 victory against Fayetteville-Manlius in the Section 3 Class A final. It was West Genesee's 29th championship in the sport.

   LaFayette continued its bid to run the table in Class C with a 14-10 win over Skaneateles. Brothers Miles (junior attackman, five goals and three assists) and Lyle (sophomore midfielder, four goals and four assists) Thompson did the majority of the damage for the Lancers (21-0).

   Kelly's a hero: Edison senior Sametra Kelly, who tore a knee ligament while winning the triple jump in the 2008 NYSPHSAA track and field championships, qualifier for four events next weekend with her performances at the Section 5 state qualier at Caledonia-Mumford.

   She took the girls' large-school triple jump event and was part of Edison's victorious 400-meter relay. She also placed second in both dashes to advance to Cicero-North Syracuse, although she'll likely drop at least one individual event to reduce wear and tear.

   Another four-pack: Dynamic Saratoga sophomore Madalayne Smith qualified for four state-meet events (100, high hurdles, long jump, 400 relay) as well to highlight the Section 2 state qualifier.

   Defending state champ Sarah Palmer of Schuylerville PR'd in the high jump at 5-9 1/4.

   A breakthrough: Lansingburgh snapped South Glens Falls' four-year reighn in Section 2 Class A softball, avenging title-game losses in 2006 and 2007 with a 3-2 victory for this spring's championship.

   Kayla Cole's fifth-inning single broke a 2-2 tie and senior Erin Glikes threw a six-hitter with three strikeouts to give Lansingburgh its first championship since 2000.

   "South Glens Falls is such a great program and to take it from them is great," Glikes told The Times Union.

   Big finish: Somers star Dan Zlotnick threw a three-hit shutout in last year's Section 1 Class A final. The senior lefty topped it this time around by hurling a no-hitter on two days rest to highlight a 3-0 win over Lakeland.

   Cleanup hitter Zach Bird cleared the bases with a two-out double in the fifth inning in support of Zlotnick, who struck out 11 and walked two. He threw 86 pitches and didn't allow a ball to be hit out of the infield.

   Zlotnick threw an 88-pitch shutout Monday vs. Eastchester and is 5-0 in the postseason with a 0.66 ERA and 13 hits allowed in 32 innings.