Manhasset players celebrate after beating Garden City
in the annual Woodstick Classic this past season.
Some have tradition and lots of it.
Like Garden City vs. Manhasset.
Others have become heated of late.
Like Darien vs. Ridgefield.
There are lots of great rivalries throughout the Hudson Valley, Long Island and Connecticut. Perhaps more than any other region anywhere.
But which is the best?
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Posted In: You make the call
John Jay vs Yorktown.
So much history between both these schools, great players going up against each other as juniors in high school and for the 3rd time in 4 years have a player ranked in the top 10 in his graduating class. (Bocklet, Ki and Daniello)
How bout Yorktown vs. Lakeland Panas. Great rivalry that has such a great story behind with Mr. Murph and the Murph Cup. That rivalry has been going on for longer than the Yorktown JJ rivalry.
In CT, Wilton v. New Canaan was THE rivalry in the late ’70s, ’80s and most of the ’90s. The rivalry was at its peak during the ’80s when Wilton won 5 State Championships and New Canaan won 5 state Championships. Great battles w/ two great coaches, Guy Whitten and Howard Benedict.
Because of the tradition, I have to go with the Murph Cup, Yorktown-Lakeland/Panas.
Clearly, Manhasset vs. Garden City is the top rivalry. Being that it has lasted the longest and has remained relevant for that entire time. These teams typically are the runner up of their perspective conferences if they are not the champion. It is absolutely remarkable. They are both fantastic NY metro-suburban lacrosse communities.
The Yorktown issue is complex. Yorktown has no true equal within in its conference until you get to 2004. For years, Lakeland was the rivalry but that was as much geographical as it was athletic. To be sure, Lakeland has handed Yorktown some defeats and even today remains their cross-town nemesis, capable of scaring the Huskers if not for three quarters and maybe winning 2 out of every 10 meetings. Look at the Charlie Murphy Cup results. Does that look like a rivalry to you? There is Beardsley. There is 97, where L/P took Town down in the finals and 94, where the Rebels took the Murphy Cup, a class A title, and ducked out of the state tournament after a tight 4-3 loss to Ward Melville, -also a 10-9 victory in the cup game in 07 (Yorktown’s worst season in modern times) but a rivalry? .. With Yorktown?
Yorktown is not yet comfortable with the idea of John Jay being a rivalry. Maher does not consider it his team’s biggest rivalry and many of his contemporaries from within the program concur. This is because the Huskers didn’t begin to have any problems with Jay until recently and rivalries aren’t built overnight. For years, one of Town’s many accolades was that they had never lost to the Indians- a fact that no other teams in the region could boast. Even Wilton, who dominated CT ,dropped a game to Jay in 1990, albeit an overtime interstate game that caused little traffic on Route 35.
The Indians always wanted to beat Town but never could. In 99 when it happened, it came and went, and it was a monkey off Katonah’s back and something that those particular Yorktown players ( who were very young that year) lamented. Ughh not John Jay.
Then, it changed. Town had problems with Jay for four years. Losing to them 4 of 6 times during 2004-2007. Jay came into national prominence with a state title game appearance, a load of big time DI players, a plethora of H.S. All- Americans and for the most part this surge happened quickly. Too quickly for those 80’s-90’s Green Jerseys that had gotten used to being the Greatest Show on Earth-by themselves.
If Jay is Yorktown’s rival they had better solidify it quickly. Purple had a down year last year and dropped the 2008 game to Town 13-10. Jay needs to beat Town either this year or next year to keep this “rivalry” alive.
Rivalry has to imply some type of even-handed competition. Yorktown has usually had to look elsewhere for that.
Sav took over in 2000 and changed everthing for the purple.
Savastano has definitely played a role in John Jay’s success. The Community itself went through some changes starting in the mid 90’s that also has had an affect. Many families that relocated there from LI had lacrosse backgrounds and parents have really put a lot of time into the youth program which has more than doubled in size since the mid 90’s.