Roy Colsey didn’t sleep well last night.
His baby son made sure of that. Not that it mattered anyway.
“I wasn’t going to get much sleep last night no matter what,” he said.
After all, today was the day Ridgefield had marked on its calendar for weeks make that months. Maybe even years.
And tonight, Ridgefield’s first-year coach and his Tigers picked up another first a win against Darien.
Virginia-bound senior star Matt White scored with 47 seconds remaining to give the Tigers an 8-7 win.
The play started after a Darien shot on goal hit the post. White took the ball upfield, dodging his way into the restraining box.
“I had a few short sticks on me, but I was able to get by them, and then I was a little gassed, but you gotta do what you gotta do for your teammates,” said White, who had two goals and three assists.
He wound up creating what proved to be the winning score off a brilliant one-on-one effort that would have made Colsey, a former star midfielder at Yorktown at Syracuse known for creating offensive opportunities, proud.
Darien, which ran a deliberate ball-control offense that effectively kept the ball away from Ridgefield’s high-octane offense, took a 7-5 lead with 5:43 remaining on John Bolton’s third goal of the game.
But the Tigers battled back and tied it on Fairfield University-bound Brendan Walsh’s fourth goal of the game with 1:35 remaining.
Despite getting little sleep, Colsey had plenty of energy during the day for another task he deemed important namely reminding his player of the importance of this game.
“Starting at 7:30, I texted all the seniors scores,” Colsey said.
Scores of what?
“Of all the scores between Ridgefield and Darien,” Colsey said, “starting in 1999 when it was 24-0 Darien.”
Said White: “I got like 10 texts from Coach Colsey.”
As big a win as tonight’s was, Colsey and the Tigers know they almost unquestionably will be facing the four-time state champion Blue Wave again probably June 2 in the FCIAC final at Brien McMahon at 7:30 p.m.
“We know we’re probably going to play them again, but before we get to that point, we had to break this barrier,” Colsey said. “And it feels great.”
We’ll be back with video highlights of the key goals down the stretch as well as video interviews with Colsey and White.
Reach Joe Lombardi at joe@laxlessons.com.
Posted In: Fairfield lacrosse
Great win Tigers. You showed heart and pride. Too bad Darien had to be gutless and run a stall offence! Let’s beat em by 10 next time!!
If you’re a great player you come through in a game like this. You may get shut down for a half, as Whitey was in the first half, but never for four quarters. You fight back and make big plays and lead your team to a win. Matt White proved why he is the best player in the region tonight.
Give the Tigers credit they got it done, But they were out worked on ground balls and riding, The difference was the Best player on Off for RF is better than the best on Darien, the biggest mistake in the game was with 2 mins to go winning 7-6 Darien with the ball in the Off end, and right there they decide not to be patient? The Coach should have called a T/O, the rest is History. The Goalies were excellent..
Bolton and Brickman are nice players but yeah, Darien has no one the caliber of Matt White. Or even guys like Brendan Walsh, Matt Baker or Colin Scott. Credit Brameier who is just a fantastic coach and did a great job preparing his team. It was great lacrosse tonight at Tiger Hollow.
Great prediction Joe. I think you nailed the final score right on the nose!
Real Nice win!
Just to add to my earlier comments, it was definitely lax at its finest. Two well-prepared, well-coached teams who really knew the strengths of their opponents and did a good job of neutralizing them or taking them away.
Matt White’s play in the second half was unforgettable. He was held scoreless in the first half, but Roy Colsey and assistant Don Connolly wisely employed him at midfield even on faceoffs in the second half in hopes of getting him the ball more often. In the opening seconds of the second half, White assisted on a goal by Brendan Walsh that tied it at 4-4. That really seemed to spark him. He finished with 2-3.
And finally, usually when a poster makes a comment that is not worthy of a response, well, I don’t respond. But Keeler Tav, please. Darien did not stall. Coach Brameier ran a patient, ball-control offense that played to his team’s strengths. Simply stated, Ridgefield is much more athletic and has more depth on offense. It was not stalling at all.
I’m looking forward to the next Ridgefield-Darien battle and you know there will be a next time.
Meanwhile, I’m hearing rumors there’s a pretty big game tomorrow night too. I better check the schedule on that one.
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Congrats Tigers! Great coverage of a great game by Joe and Laxlessons.
Gutless = calling other people gutless under an anonymous blog name.
There’s a writeup in today’s Stamford Advocate that has the shots at 49-26 for Darien. That would put to rest the stalling talk, I’d hope.
What is most telling is that Ridgefield passed the “pressure” test I wrote of the other day. Most all of the things I mentioned as issues came to pass. The most important thing is that the Tigers reacted well when faced with the reality of their situation with 4 minutes left in the game. How did they compensate for the loss of their faceoff man and top pole? Matt White. How did they clear the ball with a minute left in a tie game? Matt White. Who was by his own admission gassed yet took charge and scored on a great shot to give his team the victory? Matt White. In crunch time, the best players show up and play big; young Mr. White did all of that and then some. Credit should also go to the goaltender for RHS, Hyatt, who stood up to all that pressure and gave his team the opportunity to come back and win. Congratulations to both teams on a well-played, memorable and historic game.
An important note on the game, gang. It was originally thought that Darien’s 24-0 win over RIdgefield in 1999 was the first meeting between the teams. But a check of the history books by Darien coach Jeff Brameier has revealed that the teams actually met once before in 1984, Brameier’s first year as Darien coach. And Ridgefield won 19-7. So last night’s win was Ridgefield’s first over the Blue Wave in a decade but not ever.
Lax Novice – Keeler Tav does not represent the majority of the Ridgefield lacrosse community and is probably a non playing underclassman spouting nonsense. However until you post all your comments using your real name you’re no better than Keeler. His boasts are no different than your provoking post about “whining coming from Tiger Hollow”.
Kudos though to most of your predictions from your pregame post. Many were spot on. A ton of fans at Tiger Hollow last night and all well behaved and spirited.
Copps Hill
White the best player in the “region”??
Surely you must mean the “CT” region.
I’ll put Ranagan , Jo Jo, and Interlichio AT LEAST at the same level.
We’ve certainly heard a lot of of well deserved praise for the fantastic play of Matt White during their big win against Darien, however, there were actually some other contributers Thursday night for Ridgefield, as well.
For one, most people seem to overlook the fact that one player ( Walsh, 4 goals ) scored half of Ridgefields 8 goals in that game, including the one to tie it up with only a minute left. That only warrented a footnote in the small print box scores of the newspapers. Thats also the first time a players scored 4 goals against Darien all year.
Dont know if anybody else has noticed but, Midfielder Walsh alone has pretty much outscored the Tigers entire Attack in most of their big games.
frankly,
Thanks for the comments. I probably haven’t made it clear that I have no issues with the Ridgefeld lacrosse community at-large. I know a few parents of players on the varsity personally and all are good people properly enthusiatic about the team, as any of us would be. I try to save little digs like that for the over-the-top hpye machine guys who we’ve all seen have a tentative grip on reality when it comes to rankings and such. I apologize if you took any of that personally; I meant no harm to those of you who view things with head as well as heart.
Timeout,
Brendan Walsh is a phenomenal player who deserves the lion’s share of the credit in many big spots. I agree with your assessment 100%. His game is not as flashy as some of the other players who are on the field (on either team in many cases), but he has a get it done attitude and ability to beat his man in big spots…kudos to #8 on a great game against Darien…
slacrosse –
None of those players – with the exception, MAYBE, of Interlicchio – are on White’s level.
English, Galasso and White are, in my opinion, the top players in the region. It will be no contest next year – as solid as Kevin is, Galasso is in his own league.
BigDog, Timeout,
I definitely agree. Walsh plays big in all the big games. He’s really been Ridgefield’s most productive and consistant player all year.
And since he watched from the sidelines most of Ridgefield’s blow-outs, the vast majority of Walsh’s scoring has come against the best teams. If there was a power rating on individual scoring, Walsh would probably be one of the tops in the region.
James,
We agree to disagree. If you were at the Jay game, saw what Ranagan did on O, D, and FO, cant see how you would not put him at the uppermost level with the best middies. English , Galasso no better then Jo and KI.