As John Jay and Somers players lined up for the post-game handshake following Somers’ 10-7 win tonight, you could almost sense the feeling on both sides.
That while it was a big game and, in fact, a very entertaining one it was just Round 1.
I talked to players and coaches from both teams and asked them directly: Do you think you guys will meet each other again?
The answer in every case was a resounding yes.
Now, whether that’s in the Class B semifinals or finals if it indeed does happen remains to be seen. Especially after Greeley’s gutty performance in a 16-11 loss at Yorktown.
For video highlights of the John Jay-Somers game, click here.
“I thought we played real well,” John Jay coach Nick Savastano said. “I thought it was one of our better efforts, and I thought it was our best effort in terms of getting ground balls and hustling. Somers is a good team. They’re athletic and they hustle.”
For the second game in a row, the Tuskers’ star, Syracuse-bound senior JoJo Marasco, was held in check. He finished with two goals and one assist, thanks in large part to the defensive efforts of SUNY-Geneseo-bound Jeff Dunworth and Hopkins-bound Jameson Pickel. But after a 7-3 loss to Cold Spring Harbor in which Marasco was held to one goal, the Tuskers adjusted much better this time around.
“There’s no reason we should ever be held to three goals in a game,” said senior Dylan Haas, who scored three times himself tonight. “We’re too athletic and have too many good players for that.”
Including Haas, who typifies what makes the Tuskers such a tough matchup for other teams. He is an athletic, two-way midfielder who can beat you in many ways. Tonight, it so happens to be, it was mainly on offense.
“After he scored the first goal, I said to him, ‘We need you to score tonight, and you’re going to score,’ ” Marasco said.
Haas’ first goal tied it at 1-1. Somers then took a 2-1 lead on a goal by junior Colin Tullgren with 1:42 to go in the first quarter off a perfectly placed pass from Haas.
Somers’ offense came alive after John Jay took a 3-2 lead with 6:19 to go in the second quarter on a goal by Will Stewart. In a bizarre scenario, Stewart was sidelined for the remainder of the game following the game after injury his shoulder while exchanging high fives with teammate Andrew Masterson.
After Stewart’s goal, Somers went on a 4-0 run that ended when junior attackman Greg Petre, who has as quick a release and as hard a shot as you’ll find, ripped home a blast to give Somers a 6-3 lead with 41 seconds remaining in the second quarter. John Jay then got a huge goal with one second remaining in the second quarter when Jimmy Morris scored his second goal of the game.
Haas and Marasco scored the first goals of the third quarter to stretch Somers’ lead to 8-4.
“That was big,” Savastano said. “I thought the last goal right before the half gave us momentum. If we scored early in the second half, instead of them, who knows?”
The Tuskers also got a huge lift from the play of junior Chris Longo, who established himself as one of the section’s top goaltenders by making an astonishing 26 saves. It was the best performance by a goalie from the region I’ve seen this season.
“This is the way Chris is capable of playing,” Somers coach Lew Janavey said. “But we gave up too many shots. We have to analyze why they got so many shots and what we can do about that the next time we play them.”
Then Janavey caught himself.
“If we play them again,” he said.
Greeley and Yorktown will not play again this season. That much is certain.
But if they did, who would know what to expect.
After all, Yorktown jumped out to a 7-1 lead today, and started subbing some of its starters.
At halftime, the ‘Huskers found themselves clinging to an 8-6 lead.
I honestly can’t remember a high school game at least turning so completely around in such a short amount of time.
But this game was noteworthy for another reason.
Through Yorktown’s first four games, Yorktown junior attackman Kevin Interlicchio scored 29 goals. Some readers questioned on this blog whether or not he could ever be contained in a game this season. I maintained it would happen. It did.
Credit Greeley senior Derek Katchis. Pound for pound, he may be the best defenseman in Section 1. He used his quick feet, strong skill skills, knowledge of the game and aggressiveness to hold Interlicchio to one goal.
But the good news for Yorktown is the player who was carrying their offense was shut down. And they still scored 16 goals.
Half of them were off the stick of another Hopkins-bound standout: senior midfielder John Ranagan.
His last goal was strictly for the highlight reel. Controlling the ball about 15 yards in front of the cage, he took a slash to the head. Just as the yellow flag went up, he took another one. He never lost his ball or the ball. He then circled behind the net. I was thinking at that point, he should just go for the wraparound. He did. While in mid-air, he placed it into the lower corner of the net.
It was quite a sight in what was quite a day of lacrosse.
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All I’m going to say about Somers, Jay and Greeley is it’s now imperative to get the top seed in the B tournament … so you don’t have to play two of these teams.
By the way, can someone — anyone — shed some light on L/P vs. Mahopac tonight? All I heard was an 8-6 L/P win. C’mon now. Spill it.
random questions for the day…does anyone else think that scoring appears to be way up over prior years? where have all the poles gone too? Also, will the local sports adminstrations adopt the NCAA rules for heads in 2010? (designed to make the ball come out more)
Somers -JJ Top seed very important. Difference from a fans perspective was
1. faceoffs Somers won about 2/3rds,
2. Goalie Play/shot selection/speed, Somers goalie was very good and JJ shots were 10-15 MPH slower than Somers.
3. Defensive play of attackmen, Somers much better at riding the defenders trying to clear the ball all game, it was not until late in the game when JJ saw it slipping away that they started to trap (which lead to 1 quick Somers goal), atackmen on JJ were slow to cover their defensive counterpart compared to Somers. Just my 2 cents from a fan. A very entertaining game and Somers has quite a few good atheletes it is not all JoJo. Liked the way young Daniello challenged and dished the ball. Good luck to both teams well played.
PAC/LP
Did I miss it? Color on the game last nite?
L-P sighting anyone? Did they fold after Town pasted them in sec final?
From a Pac standpoint we judt didn’t execute. The boys need to realize they don’t have all the answers and listen to what the coaches tell them.
We will turn things around and have a new game Saturday. We will be ready for Town on Tuesday. I wouldn’t want to be them!
Saw only the second half, J-Jay’s defense looked awful. Jay’s offense went dead once the Stewart kid got hurt, a number of their younger kids were playing catch with the goalie or hitting the pipes! I can’t believe the Somers goalie was credited wit 23 or so saves,
Any one know the extent of Stewart injury, if he goes down for an extended period , J-Jay loses a lot of leadership and tenacity.
What happened with J-Jays goalie Maher, he was missing for the second half, did he also get hurt?
TownLaxRecruiter-
1st off thats Stewarts own fault for getting injured,
2ndly The Somers goalie Chris Longo had numerous saves off the chest and a whole bunch of stick saves.
and if im not mistaken Longo Slide on his knees from one pipe to another to make a huge game changing save.
I am a player for Yorktown’s JV and when i went to the Yorktown-Somers game, i thought he played a great game but Town over powered them.
But not to put down our Goalie i bleieve Longo iss top goalie in section!
Ok longo had an amazing game no doubt but that dosent make him better than both mike b and haggerty. Mabey he will arise to be as good as them but that will take time and more than 1 dominate game like this one.
Longo played great for us so far this season but even I admit mike b and haggarty have an edge on longo.
“Stewarts own fault for getting injured”? Because he high-fived someone after scoring a goal? Please.
I don’t think I want to be husker2 at today’s practice, giving love to goalies from other schools.
And injuring yourself celebrating a goal is just plain dumb. If it was a Mount Vernon basketball player who did that you’d be saying something else.
Jonny McGuigan is a better goalie then Chris longo, not by much but better
Lax Novice,
So basically, you’re saying that high fiving is dumb. Getting hurt doing a backflip after a goal or a touchdown is dumb. Getting hurt while high fiving is justa freak accident.
And I would not be saying something else if it was a MV hoop player, but it sounds like you would. Don’t project your issues onto me.
The injury was not due to excessive celebration. You can see it in the highlight film. It was a reoccurring injury from football that resulted from a sudden different type of movement. Again, it was a very low key celebration and not the type of encouragement that you would discourage as a coach. Its good to score a goal. You can high five afterword, really its fine.
I wasn’t there to see for myself, so I am relying on accounts written here. But on any team a guy risking injury to himself (or, as you suggest, aggrevating a previous football injury) by high-fiving, chest-bumping or the like is selfish. Kids will be kids, and injuries happen, and enthusiasm is encouraged, to a point.
I understand the young man who hurt himself is a leader on this year’s team. That’ll be a shame if he loses significant time due to a thoughtless accident in a moment, that, apparently, is OK with John Jay supporters.
And my only issue, by the way, is that risking that kind of injury and the effect that will have on the entire team is dumb, whether its in Katonah or Yonkers. That you disagree, Doid, is your issue, not mine.
Leave the kid alone, he scored a goal and simply went up for a high five with a friend and his arm got caught and pushed in the wrong direction. Hes probably already pissed of and annoyed with this and he doesnt need someone bashing him about it when his lacrosse season could be in jeopardy
I don’t think JJ’s offense was bad if they outshot Somers by around twice as much, they just couldn’t find the net and Longo was incredible while it seemed like most of Somers shots went in. But yes the Stewart injury prompted I think a 6-1 run by Somers at the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd. Stewart said it hurt after he took the shot and popped out while celebrating, it’s not his fault he didn’t do anything stupid. Maher isn’t injured I believe that they just tried Franklin as another option later in the game, they’re both good junior goalies. JJ had lots of 1 v 1 opportunities and it seemed like they still had a harder time finding the net than Somers, who had some good goals from outside.
Stewart is of course their leader but JJ is pretty deep at middie. How bout sophomore middies stepping up after Stewart went down and scoring 5/7 goals? Forrest Walter especially impressed me by creating two goals by himself and adding an assist, to lead JJ in goals so far this season is very impressive for a 1st year sophomore, Daniello and him are leading in points.
Lax novice,
He was not risking anything. He did not do anything out of the ordinary. Stop trying to grand stand with this “serves you right” commentary. This was not a celebration but an acknowledgement of good play. It is not up for interpretation because it is easily viewable on the highlight film that is posted on NCN website. It was a routine high five, not a bombastic celebration.
What’s most troubling about your post is that you assign the moral high road to yourself. You criticize Jay supporters for understanding the circumstances of the situation while at the same time letting the lacrosse world know how “selfish” this student athlete is.
The injury was a coincidence. Had he not high-fived, the injury would have triggered itself during his very next play, or soon after. If you are not a Jay fan, take the Somers victory and be happy with that. If you are ignorant about a subject try not to opine about it so poignantly. Dummy.
I highly doubt Will Stewart was channeling his inner Chad “Ocho Cinco” or TO after scoring that goal … Freak things happen, boys. Let’s not make this out to be anything more than what it was.
I agree with Syracuse. If this is the worst thing that happens to the young man, he’ll be fine.
1 word UNDERRATED for longo john M. from Mahopac better? haha funny and Clarkstown South has nothing against top players Marasco, Deiana, Lombardo brothers, Petre, Schurr, Zmuidens and others not a 1 man team this year!