Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Canfield junior Dom Cruz drives and scores two of his 16 points during the first half Tuesday evening at Lakeview.

CORTLAND — Even after countless opening nights, the slight feeling of nervousness is still felt by John Cullen as he steps onto the court.

One way to shake those early blues is to find the scoreboard — find it fast. A new-look Canfield team may be missing a few pieces because of their football team’s trek to state, but the Cardinals appeared speedy as they flew past Lakeview 71-30.

“The thing is when you’re dealing with young kids and you never know how they’ll respond to things,” Cullen said. “Our whole thing is getting in the right frame of mind because your sense of readiness and sense of urgency has a lot to do with things. We’ve had a problem in a lot of our scrimmages coming out slow and we didn’t warm up very well.

“Well we had a good warmup today, so they were ready to go. They’re good kids, they want to do the right things and you just have to give them those opportunities.”

Sophomore Ben Weaver started the show scoring off of the opening tip and a quick 6-0 run led to an early Lakeview timeout 50 seconds in. Canfield would start off 12-0 following a three-pointer off the hands of sophomore Drew Shapiro.

The Bulldogs (1-1) would be held scoreless until junior Kyle Senkowitz scored at the 5:35 mark in the first, but the Canfield attack continued, as a mix of three-pointers and drives to the basket continued.

Junior Dom Cruz recorded a pair of threes during that first quarter that saw the Cardinals lead 25-9. He’d finish with a game-high 16 points.

“We were moving the ball well, hitting cuts, we were taking good shots, taking advantage of their mistakes, and got a lot of fastbreak points playing as a team,” said Cruz. “(The early lead) gave us momentum, that really made their energy go down, ours was up, that just gave us a little boost to go out there and keep it going the rest of the game.

“Just playing as a team, making that one extra pass, looking for each other. Getting shots yourself, getting shots for your friends.”

The Cardinals (1-0) find themselves without a lot of size as junior Jake Schneider among others remain out ahead of their football state final this weekend. It’s led to a younger Canfield roster digging into the bench early, but there remains zero replacement for game experience.

Sophomore Ray McCune was able to find his first taste of the varsity floor, scoring 12, and just relaxing as the contest progressed.

“First time subbing in I was a little nervous, I got in there, I got a few rebounds and a few buckets, and then everything went away, I was perfectly fine,” said McCune. “That was a big confidence boost, scoring, getting everyone going, and passing. It’s a great feeling (scoring 12), looking to get more rebounds and beat my dad out for the rebound record.

“Great coaches in the locker room on us, and a great practice week.”

Junior Tony Russo and Weaver tallied eight points. Senkowitz paced the Bulldogs with 11 points, senior Andrew McRoberts added six.

Lakeview came off an opening-night win over Champion, but with a younger team that only returns two veterans in senior Tyler Capan and McRoberts, the Bulldogs look to learn early.

“I knew it was going to be tough coming in, credit to Canfield though, they’re a well-oiled machine even though it’s Cullen’s first year there, they knew what they’re doing,” said Lakeview coach Mark Novotny. “You can teach experience, we do the best we can. We’re going to watch film and work on the things we’re trying to get better at, we’ll get there.

“My guys never quit tonight, credit to them for that, they kept fighting until the end. The scoreboard wasn’t pretty, but there were good things. There are things that’ll we’ll watch tomorrow and we’ll talk about, we’ll find some good things. There are moments, we just have to have more moments, that’s what we’re building towards.”

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