From West Genesee at the top of Class A to a Skaneateles vs. Tully opener in Class D, here is where every Central New York team stood as quarterfinal weekend opened Friday at Jamesville-DeWitt and Saturday at Baldwinsville. State qualifiers run through June 14 at Hobart William Smith.
Truth-check: Frank Mahoney, Editor-in-Chief.
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Geo Frattasio has scored 39 goals for New Hartford this spring. Landon Gentile has put up 64 points. Will Picolla is stopping pucks at a .620 clip in net. None of that mattered Friday evening as the No. 2 seed Spartans walked onto their own turf to face No. 7 Fulton in a Section III Class C quarterfinal, the second game of a weekend that put eight Central New York lacrosse brackets in motion at once.
By Saturday morning, the Class A boys side had jumped into action too, with No. 5 Rome Free Academy traveling to No. 4 Baldwinsville for an 11 a.m. first-round game. The winner of that one is staring at top-seeded West Genesee on Tuesday at 6 p.m. (Rome Sentinel, May 22, 2026). For the Wildcats of West Genny, the 2026 playoff run is the first real test of a 12-4 regular season that put them at the top of the Class A ladder.
Class A boys, Class B boys, Class C boys, Class D boys, and four matching girls brackets are all live as of this morning. The two championship Saturdays at Cicero-North Syracuse on May 30 will produce eight Section III titles before the state qualifier round flips on the lights at Hobart William Smith Colleges on June 14 (NYSPHSAA Boys Lacrosse Championships, 2026 schedule).
Class A boys: West Genesee, CNS sit at the top
The Class A boys field is the largest in Section III by enrollment and the deepest by talent. No. 1 West Genesee enters at 12-4. No. 2 Cicero-North Syracuse drew the other side of the bracket. No. 3 Liverpool gets the CNS winner in the semifinals (WSYR/LocalSYR brackets coverage, May 2026). No. 4 Baldwinsville hosted No. 5 RFA Saturday at 11 a.m. in the only first-round game on this side of the draw (Rome Sentinel, May 22, 2026).
RFA carried a 14-2 record into Saturday, the best regular-season mark of any Class A team in this bracket (Rome Sentinel). Baldwinsville came in at 6-10. On paper, the road team had the edge. The Class A semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday, May 26 at 6 p.m., with the championship Saturday, May 30 at 3 p.m. at Cicero-North Syracuse High School (CNYHomepage, 2026 brackets coverage).
Class B boys: CBA defending, RFA pushing
Christian Brothers Academy is the No. 1 seed in Class B boys and the defending Class B champion, riding a 14-2 record into the playoffs (Rome Sentinel, May 22, 2026). The Brothers are on the favorite side of a bracket that includes a pair of Skaneateles-area schools as serious obstacles, plus a Marcellus program that has carried postseason muscle in recent springs.
On the lower half of the Class B draw, No. 5 RFA is set to play No. 4 Liverpool on Tuesday at 5 p.m. on the road (Rome Sentinel). That winner moves into the Class B semifinal stage on the same May 27 evening that the girls Class B semifinals tip off, creating a busy mid-week stretch for athletic directors juggling field turn-around.
Skaneateles boys enter Class B as the No. 6 seed and were scheduled to face No. 3 Lowville in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 11 a.m. Last June the Lakers lost the Class D championship to Marcellus 11-10 in double overtime at East Syracuse Minoa, with Luke Mizro scoring for Skaneateles in that game (Auburn Pub, 2025 championship recap). This year Skaneateles plays up in Class B and will be a tougher out than the seed implies.
Class C boys: J-D defending, New Hartford stocked
Jamesville-DeWitt enters Class C as the No. 1 seed and the defending Class C champion at 11-5 (Rome Sentinel, May 22, 2026). The Red Rams hosted No. 8 Vernon-Verona-Sherrill on Friday, May 22 at 5:30 p.m. in a quarterfinal. VVS came in at 8-7 (Rome Sentinel).
The most loaded statistical roster on this side of the bracket belongs to No. 2 New Hartford. Spartans coaching staff have leaned on Geo Frattasio (39 goals), Micah Barone (34 goals), and the all-around game of Landon Gentile, who put up 34 goals, 30 assists, and 64 points during the regular season (Rome Sentinel). In net, Will Picolla finished the regular slate at a .620 save percentage (Rome Sentinel). New Hartford hosted No. 7 Fulton (8-8) at 5 p.m. Friday.
No. 3 Christian Brothers Academy and No. 6 New Hartford had been previously listed in one mid-bracket version of the Class C draw as a Tuesday May 26 5 p.m. matchup before the seed lines firmed up (WSYR brackets coverage, May 2026). The Class C semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday, May 26, with the Class C final on Saturday, May 30 at Cicero-North Syracuse.
Class D boys: Skaneateles top, LaFayette/OC at No. 3, Marcellus a familiar foe
Class D boys was the bracket that produced one of the most memorable Section III finals of 2025, when Marcellus edged Skaneateles 11-10 in double overtime at East Syracuse Minoa, with Luke Mizro scoring in that loss for the Lakers (Auburn Pub, 2025 final recap). One year later the field looks similar at the top end.
According to bracket coverage published this week, No. 1 Skaneateles is scheduled to host No. 8 Tully on Wednesday, May 28 at 6 p.m. The other quarterfinal pairings show No. 5 Lowville at No. 4 General Brown, No. 3 LaFayette/Onondaga Central versus No. 6 South Jefferson, and No. 7 Cazenovia at No. 2 Marcellus at 7 p.m. on May 28 (search aggregation of 2026 brackets, Section III). The combined LaFayette/Onondaga Central program continues to compete in Class D rather than Class C this year, a classification confirmed in 2026 bracket coverage.
Sandy Creek did not appear in the Class D boys quarterfinal field listed in this week’s coverage. [Result pending] for any preliminary-round Sandy Creek matchup. Section III’s Class D boys field typically has 8 to 10 programs, and seeding lines can shift up to the final 24-hour window before the bracket goes live.
Holland Patent, a Mohawk Valley program that finished 3-13 in Class D, opted out of the 2026 boys playoffs (Rome Sentinel, May 22, 2026), a reminder that the bracket as published does not always equal the bracket as played.
Girls Class A: CNS up top, West Genny on the title hunt
The Class A girls bracket sets up around No. 1 Cicero-North Syracuse, the regular-season top seed at 9-7 (Rome Sentinel, May 22, 2026), and No. 3 West Genesee. The West Genny program is the most decorated girls lacrosse name in the section and has been chasing both a Class A title and a deep state run.
No. 4 Baldwinsville draws No. 5 Liverpool at 5 p.m. Tuesday May 27 at Baldwinsville (WSYR brackets coverage and Rome Sentinel cross-reference). The winner advances to play CNS in the semifinals on Thursday May 29 at 6 p.m. at CNS. Liverpool comes in at 7-9, Baldwinsville’s record varies across sources and is [result pending] for final confirmation. No. 6 RFA travels to West Genesee in the other Tuesday quarterfinal.
That West Genny vs. RFA opener will be the first real test of whether the Wildcats can keep their championship form into the state qualifier round, which begins June 1 at St. John Fisher for the Class A girls final (GLaxFive 2026 schedule).
Girls Class B, C, D: Skaneateles, South Jefferson lead
The Class B girls bracket is missing one Mohawk Valley program. Whitesboro (2-13) opted out of the 2026 girls Class B playoffs (Rome Sentinel, May 22, 2026). The remaining field plays first-round games on Monday May 19, quarterfinals on May 22 or May 23 at the higher seed, semifinals on May 27 at Honeoye Falls-Lima, and the final on June 2 at St. John Fisher (GLaxFive 2026 schedule).
The Class C girls bracket runs to South Jefferson as the No. 1 seed. No. 3 Christian Brothers Academy will host No. 6 New Hartford at 5 p.m. Tuesday May 27 (Rome Sentinel). New Hartford carries the bracket’s best regular-season record at 13-3 against a CBA program that finished 8-8 (Rome Sentinel). The Class C girls semifinals are scheduled for May 27 at Pal-Mac, with the championship at St. John Fisher on June 2.
Class D girls is the bracket with the most Central New York identity. No. 2 Skaneateles drew No. 7 Jordan-Elbridge at 6 p.m. Tuesday May 27 at Skaneateles. No. 3 Westhill hosts No. 6 Cazenovia at 6 p.m. the same evening (search aggregation of 2026 girls D bracket). No. 8 Clinton drew No. 9 Mexico in a preliminary game on Thursday (Rome Sentinel). The Class D girls semifinals are scheduled for May 26 at Wayne High School, with the championship at St. John Fisher on June 1. The semifinal between the Skaneateles bracket winners is also scheduled to feed up to a SUNY Cortland date on June 2 at 7 p.m. for the state qualifier round.
State qualifiers and the NYSPHSAA finals
The Section III sectional finals on Saturday May 30 are the gateway to the state-qualifier round, not the end of the season. Boys state semifinals and a quarterfinal round run during the first half of June, before the NYSPHSAA Boys Lacrosse Championships at Hobart William Smith Colleges on Sunday, June 14 (NYSPHSAA Boys Lacrosse Championships 2026 schedule). The state day will run Class B at 10 a.m., Class C at 12:30 p.m., Class D at 3 p.m., and Class A at 5:30 p.m. (NYSPHSAA).
That order matters for travel planning. CNY families who follow a Class A team have the latest start time of the four games. A Class B family is staring at a 6 a.m. departure from Syracuse if they want a parking spot by 10 a.m. on the Geneva campus.
Girls state championships will land at St. John Fisher and SUNY Cortland in the first week of June per the 2026 GLaxFive published schedule. Class A and Class D girls championships are on June 1 at St. John Fisher. Class B and Class C girls championships are on June 2 at St. John Fisher. State quarterfinals and semifinals fall on June 4 and June 7 in most years per the standard GLaxFive structure; specific 2026 venues are [result pending].
Standouts and storylines to watch
Three names are worth circling on the boys side this week. Geo Frattasio at New Hartford, who scored 39 goals in the regular season (Rome Sentinel). Landon Gentile, also at New Hartford, who finished the regular season with 64 points (Rome Sentinel). Luke Mizro at Skaneateles, who scored the lone Lakers goal in the double-overtime 11-10 loss to Marcellus in last June’s Class D final (Auburn Pub, 2025).
Coaching changes across the Class A and Class B fields have been minimal this spring. No. 1 seeded West Genesee returns the bulk of its veteran staff. CBA returns its Class B championship staff. New Hartford’s coaching combination has produced one of the deepest statistical rosters in any class.
The competitive surprise of the early bracket cycle is the RFA boys at 14-2, the best regular-season record of any team across both the Class A and Class B Rome Sentinel-tracked fields, yet sitting at the No. 5 seed in Class A and the No. 5 seed in Class B brackets (Rome Sentinel cross-confirmation). The Black Knights schedule discount that came with playing a tougher non-section regular season may bite the higher seeds early. Watch for Saturday’s RFA at Baldwinsville result to set the tone.
What to watch for on Tuesday
Tuesday May 26 will be the busiest single day of the bracket cycle. Class A boys semifinals tip at 6 p.m. Class B boys plays mid-bracket games at 5 p.m. Class C girls plays the New Hartford at CBA matchup at 5 p.m., and Class A girls plays Baldwinsville at Liverpool at 5 p.m. Field staff at CNS, West Genesee, Baldwinsville, CBA, and J-D will be flipping turf between programs almost back to back.
Then Wednesday May 28 the Class D boys bracket kicks off in full. Skaneateles hosts Tully at 6 p.m. and Cazenovia travels to Marcellus at 7 p.m., a rematch of the 2025 final’s losing bracket side and the second appearance in two seasons for the Lakers in a do-or-die early-round game (search aggregation of 2026 brackets, Auburn Pub 2025 recap).
The two Class C and Class A boys finals will run Saturday May 30 at Cicero-North Syracuse. Class B and Class D boys finals are also scheduled for that day with start times tracked through the Section III brackets. The girls Class A, B, C, and D finals will follow the next week at St. John Fisher.
How CNY Signal will cover the next 22 days
Every quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship outcome will be tracked against the brackets as published. We will mark scores [result pending] until confirmed against a primary source. Player stats only when the source is a published recap, an athletic department release, or a verified school account. The June 14 NYSPHSAA Championship Sunday at Hobart William Smith Colleges is the destination for every Section III bracket winner this month. For now, the only result that matters is the next whistle.
Sources: Rome Sentinel (May 22, 2026) Section III lacrosse seeds article; CNYHomepage (2026 brackets coverage); WSYR LocalSYR brackets coverage (May 2026); Auburn Pub Class D 2025 championship recap; NYSPHSAA Boys Lacrosse Championships 2026 schedule (nysphsaa.org); GLaxFive 2026 girls lacrosse schedule (glaxfive.net).
