syracuse lacrosse celebrates.jpg

The Syracuse lacrosse team celebrates their win over Yale on Saturday to send the Orange back to the Final Four for the first time since 2009.

(Dick Blume/The Post-Standard)

It was the great philosopher Ferris Bueller who once said: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

If you stop and take a look around the Central New York sports scene right now, you have to admit, things are pretty good.

The Syracuse men's lacrosse team just clinched the 27th Final Four in its history this weekend with a thrilling 7-6 win over Yale.

Looks like all those one-goal games Syracuse played this season (9), really paid off.

The Syracuse women's lacrosse team will join the men's team in Philadelphia at the Final Four after a 13-9 win over Florida. It is the second consecutive trip to the Final Four for Gary Gait's squad, and the fourth since 2008.

Now, those two teams would be enough for a good showing in Philly this weekend.

But the line at Pat's and Geno's will be chock full of CNY residents as Cornell will join Syracuse at the Men's Final Four at the Division I level.

A potential All-CNY national title game is brewing as Syracuse plays Denver and Cornell faces off with Duke.

The last time Syracuse and Cornell got together in the national title game, we were treated to an absolute classic of a game.



We will have to wait and see if that match up pans out, but we know one CNY team will be playing for a national title in Philadelphia this weekend.

LeMoyne will play in the Division II national title game versus Mercyhurst on Sunday. This is the seventh national title game appearance for the Dolphins in the last 10 years.

If the Syracuse men's or women's team, Cornell, or LeMoyne can grab a title, they would add to the title that Chuck Wilbur's Onondaga Community College squad recently brought home.

The title was the fifth consecutive for OCC. The Lazers winning streak of 70 games is the longest such run at any level in college lacrosse history. Pretty darn impressive.

Also pretty darn impressive is the way the Syracuse Crunch are going through AHL opponents like a hot knife through butter.

The Crunch are 7-0 in the Calder Cup Playoffs so far, sweeping Portland and Springfield out of the postseason. The Crunch are just the 10th team in AHL history to begin the playoffs with seven wins in a row.

It is the second conference finals appearance for the Crunch in franchise history and the first since 1996.

Crunch owner Howard Dolgon may have had to rattle a few cages to get more fans into the War Memorial on Friday night, but he should have less trouble accomplishing that the rest of the way if the Crunch keep playing like this.

All these things mentioned above are happening as we speak or just happened in the last couple weeks.

If you want to dial back the calendar even further, you can include the Final Four run by the Syracuse men's basketball team and the Pinstripe Bowl victory over West Virginia for SU football to add to the good vibes. The Syracuse field hockey team also clinched a Final Four birth this past season.

Syracuse University football had a first-round pick in the NFL Draft (Justin Pugh) and will have one in the upcoming NBA Draft (Michael Carter-Williams).

The current UFC champion, Jonny "Bones" Jones, lives in Ithaca. His brothers, Arthur (Baltimore) and Chandler (New England), both play in the NFL. Arthur's Raven's won the Super Bowl this year.

So, Ferris, we took your advice and did take a look around. You have to admit, things are pretty good right now on the sports scene in Central New York.

Now, if only we could get the memo over to the Syracuse Chiefs (currently 16-27 and in last place in the IL North division), then we would really be on to something.

>>Who did I miss? Is there a team you think we should add to the list who is having/had a great season and adds to a great run in Central New York sports right now? How about some high school teams that could win a state title in the spring playoffs?

Can you remember a better stretch of success than this for Central New York sports overall?

Drop below in the comments, hit me on Twitter, or send me an email to let me know.

Brent Axe

baxe@syracuse.com

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