Providence College-bound senior Bryan Annecchino are set to face regional rival Yorktown today in a 7 p.m. game at Charlie Murphy Field in Yorktown Heights. (Photo by Jim Stout/MaxPreps.com)
About 15 minutes earlier, Yorktown had picked up a 9-6 win at Darien on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon at this time last year, and I was standing alongside the fence at Darien High School, engaged in a conversation.
Suddenly, Darien players started making their way out to the field in perfect formation and with a sense of purpose you would expect from a team taking a field for a game.
Only the Blue Wave wasn’t getting ready to play a game. They were sent out to the field to do some extra running by coach Jeff Brameier.
While the Blue Wave and Huskers have developed a rivalry of mutual respect, that doesn’t mean a loss is easy to swallow for either of the teams — two of the top programs in the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region.
Darien has won five straight Connecticut Class M state titles. Yorktown has won six state titles in its history and 28 sectional titles the last 30 years. Game-time for their latest meeting, for the second annual Tom Lener Cup, is tonight at 7 at Charlie Murphy Field in Yorktown.
Also today in the Hudson Valley, Somers hosts Albany region power and 2009 state finalist Niskayuna at 7 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s state quarterfinal game, won by Nisky.
In another 7 p.m. game, Rockland rivals Pearl River and Tappan Zee meet at Tappan Zee.
At 8 p.m., John Jay hopes to complete a season series sweep of Horace Greeley. The Indians, who beat the Quakers 13-10 earlier this season, enter the game at No. 11 in the latest Under Armour/Inside Lacrosse National Power Rankings. The game will be played at a neutral site, Purchase College, at 8 p.m.
In 4:30 p.m. games, Bronxville hosts Ardsley, Hastings plays at Edgemont and Eastchester visits New Rochelle. Action in the Ossining tournament gets under way at 4 p.m. Scarsdale hosts Saunders at 5 p.m.
Moving to Connecticut, Weston, which suffered its first loss of the season on Monday after falling to unbeaten Staples, plays at Masuk at 4 p.m. At 4:30 p.m., Fairfield Warde visits Westhill. In 7 p.m. action, Notre Dame-West Haven plays at Hamden, Pomperaug hosts Newton and Trumbull visits Morgan at Peters Complex. Bunnell is at Stratford at 7:30 p.m.
On Long Island, Farmingdale, which has won eight straight after a 2-2 start (with the losses against Smithtown West and Lynbrook), hosts Lynbrook at 7 p.m.
Syosset hosts Uniondale, Baldwin plays at Herricks, Floral Park entertains Island Trees and Hempstead is at Freeport at 4:30 p.m. At 4:45 p.m., Clarke visits Friends.
In Suffolk, Ward Melville (10-2) hopes to bounce back from its 16-5 loss to West Islip on Wednesday, when it plays at William Floyd (7-5) at 4:15 p.m. Smithtown West visits West Babylon, North Babylon is at Brentwood and Riverhead hosts Copiague at 4 p.m. Connetquot visits Bay Shore and Smithtown East is at Lindenhurst at 4:30 p.m.
In 7 p.m. games, Sachem East hosts East Islip on its senior night. East Islip is 10-2 with its losses to West Islip, the nation’s No. 2-ranked team, and Sachem North, which is the only team this season to beat West Islip. Sachem East is 7-5.
Also at 7 p.m., Walt Whitman, coming off a 19-6 loss to East Islip, hosts Patchogue-Medford.
Be sure to post your thoughts and predictions on these matchups, and while you’re at your game or games today, be sure to check in here with info on the scores and game details early and often.
MSG Varsity coverage
(Only on Optimum)
* Lombardi on Lacrosse from 5.06.10 “Sports Desk”
* Latest Hudson Valley/Connecticut rankings
* Hudson Valley/Connecticut weekly predictions
* Previewing Saturday’s Manhasset-Cold Spring Harbor showdown of unbeatens
* Previewing Saturday’s Chase-Harvey showdown of unbeatens
* Highlights: Comsewogue 9, Shoreham-Wading River 8, four overtimes
* Woodstick Classic: Manhasset 7, Garden City 6 game tape
* Murphy Cup: Lakeland//Panas 10, Yorktown 7 game tape
* Pleasantville-Briarcliff game tape
Lacrosse for Dummies
* Order a copy of the newly released 330-page brand-new edition of the book by Joe Lombardi here.
* Click here to get a $5 rebate
Connect with us
Become a Fan of LaxLessons on Facebook now by clicking here.
LaxLessons.com recruiting coverage
Posted In: Scoreboard Central
scores???
brah, go to 5-6-10
It actually the Sleepy Hollow Crown Trophy River Tournament, but games are being played at Ossining HS.
I believe SH plays Hackley and Croton plays Ossining
Actually SH plays Croton at 4 then Ossining plays Hackley at 6pm at OHS.
Tomorrow conso and championships games are at SH
JJ vs. Greeley prediction?
John Jay 15, HG 5
Darien 11, Yorktown 8
Somers and Nisky play 6 OTs … someone wins 4-3
‘Cuse, any reasoning behind that prediction?
Can’t Predict a Jay score but I think Greely can keep it closer than 10. I don’t want them to , but I think they can.
Darien over Town 10-5
Nisky over Somers 9-5
Predictions for Pac/ guilderland tomarrow? Should be a great game
Im thinking
Pac over Guilderland…14-8
Pac O rolling Pac 15 Guilderland 10 D plays just well enough, McGuigan makes the big stops.
Darien 10 – Yorktown 8
Jay by 5 over Greeley
Darien by 4 over Yorktown (Jeckyl), Yorktown (Hyde) over Darien by 1 in OT
Pac by 6 over Guilderland
Somers over Nisky by 2
About to leave for the game.
Burkey shuts down Case, KI adds 3 to be only 8 goals away form greatness. Kevin struggles early vs UMD bound Parnon but plays a smart game and finds what he has to do to pick apart the defense.
Town midfield finds its lost rhythm that it had during its hot streak and comes up huge against the Blue Wave.
Very close game-
Yorktown 10 Darien 9
Darien leads Yorktown 3-0 after one. Goals by Gleason, West and Annecchino. Yorktown has a 3-1 edge in FOs.
THANKS FOR UPDATES PLEASE
Darien remains in command. The Blue Wave lead 6-0 at the half. Gleason and Frelinghuysen each have two goals. Case Matheis, who has been defended by Steve Burke, has three assists. George Benitez is on Kevin Interlicchio.
Town losing 9-0 Town emplying their bench
Thanx Joe–keep em coming
Darien dominating. It’s 9-0 after three.
9 0 darien.
Wow!
Jay score??
somers score?
Any historians know if Yorktown has ever been shutout or when the last time was?
Jake Thorp scores with 1:45 left to avoid the shutout. 9-1 Darien.
Chaminade should be ashamed of themselves…
10-2 to Cold Spring Harbor in 2000 is the closest I know of
I was on 1988 team that lost 10-1 to Melville and ’87 team lost 13-1 in state final to Genny. Tonight was pretty awful I guess
Indian J
Jay/Greeley score?
Darien wins the second annual Tom Lener Cup.
Final 10-3 Darien. Blue Wave’s defense, led by George Benitez and Eric Parnon and goaltender Andrew West, shines in the win. Brian Gleason finishes with three goals. Bryan Annecchino had two goals. Case Matheis had four assists.
Wow, what an unfortunate outcome for Yorktown. It was a very interesting start to the game… Yorktown looked a little too lax (no pun intended) out there on the field and it just didn’t seem like they had the juice to pull out a W tonight.
Darien was very impressive- patient and executed very well. Goalie play was spectacular and there was nothing Yorktown could really do to penetrate or open up the defense.
This may seem like an excuse, but it is truly not because I will be the first to tip my hat off to the Blue Wave for their great performance. This game really shed light upon the necessity to restructure (again) the sectional seeding criteria for Section 1. In a game that was essentially a scrimmage for Yorktown, the boys looked a little laid back and you just didn’t get the feeling that they were 100% in it. By no means am I discrediting Darien but there are some clear issues with this formula that have to be considered. Any thoughts?
Slacrosse,
I’m waiting to hear about Jay v. Greely too.
Jay game score is 7-4 jay winning – 3rd qtr
jay up 8 – 5
Ossining beat Hackley 10-9. Jeff Belitz scores winning goal with less than 20 seconds left. Exciting game.
A scrimmage for Town huh ? I really think it’s more like Sec 1 is down compared to LI and Ct this year. Look at the scores. Town has been waxed twice by LI teams and now once by a Ct team. They beat a Chaminade team that has quit since the Set game like they do almost every year. JJ beat them and was outclassed by Manhasset. JJ squeaked by Rye who could barely beat North Shore, a total doormat. It really isn’t hard to see
is that the final score for the JJ game?
somers beat niskayuna 10 to 9 in ot awesome win for somers petre had winning goal
Hey congrats Somers!!
jay final score????
Great win for Somers..things must be coming around for them. Hopefully Pac will beat another Sec 2 team in Guilderland tomorrow
Any more insight on the Somers/ Nisky game? Were any of you there?
It is really simple to me. This year Sec 1 just isn’t very good compared to their neighbors to the south and east. As a matter of fact, not even close. If you look at the scores it is very easy to see.
Laxified,
Was your post in response to my last one?
Somers. Excellent win over a very good team. You guys deserve it and … I’m sorry I picked Nisky to win- but they traditionally have been very good.
Nice job.
Like I said, Darien is and was the better team. By calling this game a scrimmage doesn’t mean I think Section 1 is down- because it clearly is. I’m not arguing which region is better nor am I ignoring the scores that have been put up this entire year.
The main point was the controversy from the seeding process in Section 1.
But on another note, thats a great win for Somers. Didn’t see that one coming. I’m hoping that win gives Somers some momentum going into the postseason. They haven’t lived up to their potential and this may be their opportunity.
Final Jay score????????
Many thanks to Hackley for a great visit to Ossining today.
Hackley is a solid team, plays good defense and has some guys who can move it on offense. Teddy Seem had a few at middie, but was shut down second half, Chris Starr is another nice player. Their defense is a simple pack-it-in zone and they play it with great discipline. In fact, both defenses played well even though 19 goals were scored, both teams had to work very hard to get shots.
Ossining is getting their O on track and the scoring is coming from a bunch of guys, a good sign for the indians. Jeff Belitz had 4, including the game winner with :17 remaining. Rob Dorgan and Donny Hooley pitched in with multiple tallies, along with Jamie McCulloch, who did his usual very good job of controlling the offense (and the clock) up top with Eric Schuster, who tallied as well.
The defense came up big with a bunch of stops as time wound down and O trailing by a goal. Chris Holmes had a takeaway against Seem near midfield that stemmed the Hackley momentum as they looked to put the nail in the coffin, but couldn’t. With less than a minute remaining, Mike Zavarella had a takeaway, along with back-to-back clears on Hackley possessions, the later leading to the final Indian goal.
But with all that, the game ball definitely goes to Greg Bardwell who was simply amazing…again. It was his stop on a point blank shot, that would have put Hackley up by two with less than four mins remaining, that kept O in the game. He is having a great year and helps this team stay in games until they get their adjustments made on D.
Hackley are sportsman and competitors and it was a pleasure to have them visit. Also, Croton and Sleepy played a fast-paced game, the Horsemen prevailing 15-6, with both teams acquitting themselves very well.
It was a great day of lax and fun was had by all!
Tomorrow at Sleepy Hollow HS:
Croton vs Hackley 12 noon
Ossining vs Sleepy 2 pm
Somers stats from 10-9 OT win over Nisky…
Petre 4, 2
Partenza 2, 1
Pfiffner 2, 1
Emanuel 1, 0
Deianna 1, 0
Longo 12 saves
saying ct is up just doesnt make any sense. Darien is probably the only team in the fciac that could compete with the upper class li teams and obviously it is a down year for section 1. I think ct is either on par or even a little down this year. On the game tonight…yorktown’s offense was incredibly flat. All things considered, especially darien’s control of possession, the defense played fairly well and against any team like darien it is difficult to hold their offense down below ten when they have more than 40 minutes of possession time. darien was very efficient in controlling the ball and yorktowns offense. im hearing that town apparently paid for their “lack of effort” after the game with a bit of running.
jj- 9 HG- 5
JJ stats vs Greeley
John Jay 9, Greeley 5
Brendan Morris 2, 1
Forrest Walter 2, 0
Mike Daniello 1, 1
Mile Lupinacci 1, 0
Evan Chen 1, 0
Jimmy Morris 1, 0
Jake Weil 1, 0
lolaxin, I really would like to agree but there’s no shot you can say Somers is coming around. They got beaten badly by Jay a couple of days ago and looked very poor throughout the game.
In response to Truth,
I am not a somers alum anything like that, but maybe its just the fact that they are highschool players and quite inconsistent.
I was just told Mr. Marr wasn’t too pleased with tonight’s effort. The Huskers apparently did a ton of running and even had what amounted to almost a full practice after the game. Or, at least, that’s the rumor going around.
Truth,
Not sure what game you were at but Somers led for 90% of the game. Longo had 15 saves and defense played very well. Very few penalties and really kept the Nisky players on the outside. Closed off the middle. Maybe you are a Nisky fan and your cow bell died, but Somers actually had offensive control and passed the ball around and played smart. Hopefully the way they played against JJ woke them up. They were UGLY, selfish and shameful. But tonight they played like a team and all played together. Hopefully this does carry through. P.S. Indian J – thanks for the compliment – never thought that would come. Now that the shock is over, took almost a week….JJ was the much better team Tuesday, I was very impressed with the whole team effort and they deserved the win. I am hoping that tonights win shows Somers they can play and they build from there so no matter where we meet it is a great game
Bottom line: Town can and will recover from this up and down season. It is not that they are “town”–obviously that notion is out the window. If you look at who Town has on this squad, they have veterans who have been to the semi finals two and three times; kids with some great lax IQ and with a proven history of playing big in big games. That said, there is not an analyst or blogger who has a clue as to what this team needs to do to finish strong. Either the kids want it or they don’t. Don’t under any circumstance count these kids out. Go town–playoffs are only a few weeks away.
Laxified
Sec 1 as a whole is does not have the amount of good teams LI has, it never has. But there are times we’ve had better teams then any on LI. In the case of Town this is not one of there best, this is a very up and down team, for whatever reason. The Ward Melville game I don’t know if you were there are not, but they did not get waxed in that game, GC they did, Cham is a good team and Town just beat them, Ridgefield is a good team same outcome win. The game tonight the D played well we won F/O but the O for whatever reason could not catch and throw, and Darien D was only responsible for some of that. Will see what happens with St Anthonys
next Sat. One thing about Town they are always willing to take on all, and if you look at their record againts teams from LI and CT who they have played over the multible yrs, they are on the winning side on all except Ward Melville. Only one team on the island has more State Championships than Town, and don’t forget they had to go through LI to get them.
Greeley, once again, shows that they are not a team that goes down easy.
And Daniello was once again held to only 1 goal by Bastian
How Town beat Chaminade still escapes me, that was the only impressive win by a Sec 1 team so far….
Jay congrats on the win which is most important. The way Jay has been playing thought they would/should win by a bigger margin but as we all know this is the “silly season’ in Sect 1 lax.
Sounds like a good effort by HG. HG fans dont feel too bad. You’ve could be the best 2-10 team (that wont make the playoffs) in the whole NY/CT/LI region!
towntime,
Agree. Maybe Fairfield is even with last yr. Field, Wich, Wilton down. Staples, Darien and New Canaan up.
Indian J,
Quite a gentleman you are apologizing for your Nisky prediction!
No need as me and several others made the same prediction based upon Nisky being Nisky and Somers up/down season.
Coming against a tough opponent hope this is a good turn-around win for Somers.
Indian J –
No worries. Joe picked Somers over Nisky on MSG Varsity but other than that I don’t think anyone picked Somers after the way Nisky beat us last yr in the regionals and coming off the loss to JJ.
I do not understand how Yorktown came out so flat….You cant come out flat vs good teams like Darien because you will never catch up!
The Huskers certainly did do a good amount of running AFTER the game was over, Coach Marr was not happy….
JJ won a real sloppygame last night. The game started off great with JJ having a 4-1 lead after 1 quarter and had a good control of the game.
HG then turned their game plan to try to use their size to physically overpower JJ, and they proceded to turn the game into a sloppy slugfest from both sides , but JJ prevailed and won 9-5.
Interesting test for JJ in that they did prevail in a physical match, but IMO they have to naintain their gameplan, not fall into playing the game their opponents dictate
I’m a little surprised at some of the excuses people are making for town. It seems like every time they don’t win it was because the “bad team” showed up. I saw the games against Darien and Garden City and believe me, the town team that played last night was infinitely better than the team that showed up against GC. Yes Town through the ball away a bit last night, but that was mostly the Darien D (Darien’s D has caused a number of teams to throw the ball away, so I don’t think all of them just had sloppy days against them).
The other excuse I see that just bewilders me is the “scrimmage mentality”. That is one of the most absurd implications I have seen on this board. These two teams play their hardest to beat each other every year. Why would Town all of a sudden decide that this game doesn’t really matter because it doesn’t go towards seeding? That’s not only unfair to Darien (who played great last night), but also to the Town players, who as competitors obviously wanted to do everything in their power to beat Darien.
Who covered Case Mathies? Because I dont think that he scored?
Burke. Matheis didn’t score, but he had 4 assists.
Ok thanks relax. So it must of been a very good matchup between the two?
Indian j, the loss to csh was in 2002.
I have followed Yorktown since Dave Marr had long hair. They have had some up and down years before but I bet they will be right up their in the section finals and have a good chance of beating Lakeland/Panas in the finals.
Relax
Without a Doubt Town wanted to beat Darien, there is no excuse about that. They were beat but the D on Darien which played very well, most of Towns turnovers in the O end were catch and throw problems. The game should have been much closer than it was.
Staples 11, St. John The Baptist 3
Sec1, I disagree. I think the score correctly indicated the gap in level of play between the two teams. Yorktown could not get a shot off from within 10 yards of the Darien goal, and West is automatic from that far out (I honestly cannot recall one shot on goal from within 10 yards, but I might be wrong).
I also was bewildered by the “scrimmage” postings that i read on this thread. Do you really believe Town will not play as hard against a team of Darien’s caliber vs a Sec 1 team that is considerably weaker? That makes no sense. Darien plays 4 non-league games every year and I guarantee not one player thinks it is a scrimmage
Relax
Well of course it is ok to disagree lol, that’s part of blogging, as for 10yrds not sure about that myself. But if you going to skip pass throw the ball away all over the place when it is un forced you are not going to stay in the game againts a team like Darien, now if that is not the case than Town will find away to score some and the D will not have to be in their end so much. And that will shrink the score. West is a fine goalie no doubt, Town plays like they did againts Cham I think they win last night, but they didn’t and the better team won..
A few random observations from last night’s Yorktown – Darien clash:
This would have to be Darien’s most complete game of this season, by a good margin. The Wave have struggled to get off to good starts in their most competitive games this season, NC,Wilton and all four of the out-of state games. This was the first of those where Andrew West did not have to be extraordinary in the 1st quarter to keep the team in the game. He was very solid last night and deserved to leave the game up 9-0 along with all the other starters and regulars.
There were a few stops West had to make in close to the cage but not uncontested, the defense and D-mids were a constant thorn in the host’s side. Darien simply moved the ball in their offensive zone much better than Yorktown did, more time, more space, more effort, better decisions.
None of those in-close attempts were made by Kevin Interlicchio; he seemed to be set up on the perimeter to simply crank from a set spot, no cutting, no dodging (until one very sweet dodge in the 4th quarter where the D-man was gone, he missed the lower left corner). I’m going to guess the injury he suffered against LP is still nagging him some. Congrats to him on the Con Ed award this week, a shame it was something of a tough 7 days for the young man.
I think Darien will take a 9-0 lead without Case Matheis getting a goal every time. I know Case would. It looked to me like they tried to get him in a spot to get at least one goal during the 2nd half, but he was thwarted/missed the net each time. The Blue Wave offense is in very capable hands for the remainder of this year as well as the next two.
I thought Yorktown showed more heart than ability overall last night, they were a step behind for the most part. That might work against Section One teams this year, but against the 2010 Darien team it’s just not good enough. Their team is young and will improve. The thing is, Darien is young also.
What happened to the famous CROP I’ve been reading about? A bunch of students showed up, yelled for a bit, then left after the 3rd quarter? Must have had curfews.
The notion that Yorktown would be taking this matchup as a “scrimmage” is a creation of parents’ imaginations, no player or coach takes any real game lightly. Yorktown’s lack of production was a function of their opponent and their ability to counteract what they are doing, Sometimes you tip your hat and turn the page, games like these are for learning about yourself and what you need to improve on.
I hope all the Moms have a lovely Mother’s Day tomorrow. Without you, there’s no game!
Sec 1, Darien and Yorktown could play 10 times and Darien will win every time. The score was 9 or 10-0 when the starters were out at the beginning of the 4th quarter. Had they played a full game, who knows what would have happened. Darien’s entire defense shut down Yorktown, particularly West in the nets and Benitez on KI. KI was unable to generate any offense last night and had 0 points. Darien’s offense moved the ball very well with multiple players contributing. Mathies got the better of Burke. He generated several point blank chances to score, in addition to his 4 assists, but simply missed. Gleason, Annechino, and Frelinghusen were relentless, racking up 7 goals among them. Yorktown had no answers
Bluewavefan2
10 Times lol,
People let’s all get along. Darien did not and still would not want to play John Jay. Let’s put an end to the Ct. and Sect. 1 debate. John Jay dominated the Darien starters in scrimmage that Darien wanted no part of.
Jethro, r u kidding me? First off, it was tied score w/ starters (Darien won with backups). Second, Darien did not play well in that SCRIMMAGE. Third, Darien has done far better against common opponents, and is clearly better than John Jay at this point in the season — these 4 goal wins over team like HG aren’t impressing anybody.
Jethro, enjoy hanging onto those fantasies. There is no Sec 1 – Conn.debate. Check MSG Varsity and see who Joe and Issac think is the best team in the Westchester/CT region. And have a happy Mother’s Day.
Jethro – “let’s get along” followed by a statement that Darien wants no part of J? Yeah, that will get people “getting along”
Those of you who think how two teams perform the once a year they meet defines them, and is the only true window into a team, really don’t understand lacrosse or high schoolers. Bad day for Town, and they might lose 10 straight to Darien, but I doubt it. And I doubt Darien would be able to go up 9-0 on Town if they played 10 games. If you haven’t seen teams play at different levels (great, good, OK, awful) throughout the season, then you don’t watch enough HS (or college) lacrosse. Darien wins bragging rights, and was clearly the better team on Friday. But this is the same Yorktown that got blown out by GC, beat a very good Chaminade team, and then got blown out by Darien. Jeckyl and Hyde.
And I picked Somers over Nisky (of course, I picked Pac over Guilderland too), I think Somers is an inconsistent team with a lot of talent. And Nisky, while strong, doesn’t seem to be at the level of some past Nisky teams.
As to Jay-Greeley, credit to Greeley, but I just don’t think this Jay team is built to blow people out, seems to rely on a strong defense.
LaxScout-
Can you just admit that Greeley played a good game?
You are the only one on here that is making excuses for JJ not blowing out Greeley. You keep saying it was just a sloppy slug fest but John Jay pulled through.
it was nothing of the sort. Greeley started off with sloppy defense, if anything, missing slides and accidentally double teaming one man and leaving another wide open. Greeley then woke up and got their heads in the game and started to slide hard and play solid defense.
This is lacrosse, of course its a physical match. if your going to blame the unimpressive win by JJ on Greeley being physically tougher, then that is pretty damn pathetic