Before we get to today’s games, we have some news to pass along as well as some thoughts about last night.
Last night, defending Section 1 Class B champion Somers overcame a seven-goal deficit to defeat defending FCIAC champion Ridgefield 14-13 in double overtime in what may have been the most entertaining game of the regular season in the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region.
Judging by the comments here before, during and after this “instant classic,” it’s been one of the most talked about games of the season as well.
The Tuskers won it in the opening minute of play of the second OT as Army-bound senior midfielder Greg Petre (pictured at right) scored his sixth goal of the game. Petre scored Somers’ first goal — and the 100th of his career — on a spectacular behind-the-back shot off a fastbreak with 5:32 remaining in the first quarter.
Early on, it looked like it was going to be all Ridgefield.
The Tigers jumped out to a 9-2 lead and Duncan Morrissey won seven of the game’s first 10 faceoffs. But Somers slowly chipped away, going on a 5-2 run to pull within 9-7 on a goal by Kevin Cousin with two minutes left in the second quarter. In the third quarter, Somers tied it at 11-11 when Brett Emanuel scored off a feed from Kieran Donohue.
Then, three players each scored their fifth goal of the game in succession (first time I’ve ever seen that) — Erik Pfiffner and Petre for Somers and Aaron Mathias for Ridgefield. Pfiffner’s fifth, with 4:14 left in regulation, gave Somers its first lead of the game at 12-11.
Down 13-12 in the closing minute of regulation, Ridgefield tied it on a goal by Ian Vazquez.
That set the stage for Petre’s game-winner, which gave him 105 goals for his career and a combined 13 goals in one-goal wins vs. regional powers Niskayuna, Montgomery (N.J.) and Ridgefield. Petre added two assists vs. Ridgefield.
It was Somers’ fifth straight win and sixth in its last seven games. Defending FCIAC champion Ridgefield (11-4) wound up 0-3 in games against Section 1 powers John Jay, Yorktown and Somers.
Somers now awaits its postseason seed, which will come officially on Thursday. The Tuskers could be seeded anywhere from 4 through 6 in Class B. A No. 4 or 5 seed would mean a likely semifinal-round game vs. John Jay, in a rematch of last year’s sectional final, won by Somers 14-9. A No. 6 seed would mean the Tuskers would avoid John Jay until the final, if both teams get that far. Stay tuned.
Now, to some news.
The teams for the Under Armour All-America Lacrosse Classic set for July 3 at Towson University were announced yesterday, and seven Long Island standouts, including two from West Islip (some kid I hear is supposed to be good by the name of Nicky Galasso as well as Towson-bound Andrew Hodgson) and three from Chaminade standouts Will Himler (Princeton), Mike Ehrhardt (Maryland) and John Urbank (Georgetown). You can check out the complete rosters here.
OK, now, without further ado, we move to today’s action.
St. Anthony’s (15-2) hopes to complete a home-and-home sweep of Iona Prep when the Friars visit the Gaels at 4:30 p.m. St. Anthony’s is coming off big wins over Chaminade and Yorktown.
In Suffolk, Hauppauge (14-1) looks to win its 11th straight game when it visits Rocky Point (11-4). Also at 4:30 p.m., Shoreham-Wading River (10-5) visits Half Hollow Hills West (6-9), Huntington is at Greenport-Mattituck-SH, Southampton hosts Islip, Babylon visits Miller Place, Center Morris hosts Mount Sinai and Westhampton hosts East Hampton in the Battle of the Hamptons. East Hampton is coming off its first-ever win against Comsewogue, which had been unbeaten prior to that game, and which today plays at Harborfields at 4 p.m. Also at 4 p.m., Elwood/John Glenn hosts Sayville and Kings Park is at Bellport.
Fox Lane (11-4) plays at Pleasantville (14-1) in a game with major sectional seeding implications. Also at 4:30 p.m. in the Hudson Valley, Put Valley hosts Putnam County rival Brewster, Clarkstown North visits North Salem and Haldane is at Briarcliff.
The Connecticut slate is highlighted by a game between Fairfield Prep (12-2) and Cheshire (13-1), which is coming off an 8-7 win against Weston (13-2). Also at 4:30 p.m., Wilton visits Bridgeport Central.
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.
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* Lombardi on Lacrosse from 5.13.10 “Sports Desk”: Darien players demonstrate dodge moves
* Week 7 Hudson Valley/Connecticut game predictions
* Long Island playoff overview
* Greenberg: Gearing up for Round 3 of St. Anthony’s, Chaminade
* Lombardi: New playoff system to impact Section 1
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Posted In: Scoreboard Central
Congrats to Greg and to the rest of the Somers’ team. Being down 9-2 and coming back to win it in double OT is absolutely amazing and shows you can play and win. Could not agree with Joe more, it looked like it was going to be very long night, Then the defense got fired up and the offense went to work. Last nights win was a true team effort lead.
BTW – didn’t mind the PA guy at all thought he was pretty good – even had a sense of humor.
Petre proves once again he is among the elite in the HV! Following a crazy ending for Army the night before vs Cuse. Greg comes out with something to prove of his own! Total domination last night! Keep it up!
Nothing beats a high scoring game in terms of excitement. This is one of the most memorable and most exciting wins Somers has had in a while. Can’t remember the last time I saw a team come back from being down 7 goals in HS lax – not to mention double OT!!! Petre really has stepped up with some amazing clutch performances – he also had the OT winning goal vs. Niskayuna. Six goals for him vs Ridgefield is pretty amazing.
Jack Moran of Chaminade is coaching the North team and 3 Cham players are on it ? 4 loss Chaminade ? Totally reputation based at best. Himler ? Urbank ? I guess you have to be going to a big D1 UA supported team to get on it huh ? No Belinsky from #2 in the country Manhasset who beat Chaminade ? Not saying they deserve to be on it but Coleman and Lawler are two dmen who along with Duvnjak are part of very arguably the best defense in NY and unbeaten by the way and Cham sends 2 of 6 and 3 out of 22 total. Great job…
#10 on Ridgefield is Amherst bound Aaron Mathias and he’s the midfielder who scored 4 goals in the first half and his fifth in the second – not Lafayete recruit Mike Galione, although Galione did score a few for the Tigers. Somers won this game as much as Ridgefield lost it with sloppy play and unforced errors.
As “lax hv” said earlier, he noted that if you played on the under armour “upper ny state” team last summer, your chances would be improved for making the AA team.
Not saying that any AA kids that come from upper ny state dont deserve the honor based on their ability but it does seem that a number of kids that played on that “upper nys team” ended up making AA. If there was a connection, it’s wrong but realize that to a certain degree, politics, etc comes into play in these situations.
Let the diatribes begin…
As of now…this minute…
“B” indexes according to laxpower stats
John Jay 4.4
Mamaroneck 3.6 Are they ‘A’ or ‘B’?
Fox Lane 3.26 (3.5 if they beat Pleasantville)
Scarsdale 3.2
Ossining 3.1875
Tappan Zee 3.13 (3.1875 if they beat Brewster*)
Eastchester 2.75
Somers 2.6
Hen Hud 2.3
Brewster 2.07 (Includes loss to Hauppauge)
2.0 (If they split their last two vs Put Valley and Tappan Zee)
2.29 (If they win out)
Nyack 1.6
Greeley 1.57 (Includes win over Guilderland)
1.73 (if they beat Rye)
Harrison 1.3
The only teams that can move are Tappan Zee and Horace Greeley.
If Greeley wins it can mean the difference between them traveling to Mamaroneck or Fox Lane, depending on whether Mamo is an A or B.
*There is no tie-breaker noted in the handbook, so this would have to be negotiated at the meeting.
Ossining and TZ both beat Wappingers, JFK and North Rockland.
Ossining beat Nanuet, while TZ lost to them.
Ossining lost to Brewster, so if TZ beats Brewster that would cancel out the tie-breaker from the Nanuet game for each and it’s back to square one.
Ossining played those opponents to 46-37. Currently, TZ is at 33-26. If the TZ/Brewster game ends up 13-11 they will be exactly even.
Ossining has a higher laxpower rating and it is unlikely TZ could catch O, but it’s doubtful this would even enter the conversation.
Maybe they would break the tie with leg-wrastlin’.
Rye/Greeley time changed to 6:15 tomorrow
Thanks round robin….If 13 teams are in , don’t 3 get byes? 13 plays 4, 12 plays 5,….9 plays 8. Winner of 9/8 plays 1? Say it ain’t so Joe!! Somers/Hen Hud winner plays JJ in quarters? Please let me be wrong
LaxPower ratings have no bearing in the Section 1 rankings.
It looks that way Seedings??. It also assumes all these numbers are all correct.
Second round matchups would be:
JJ vs. Somers/HH
Mamo vs. Eastchester/Brewster
Fox vs TZ/Nyack
Scarsdale/Harrison vs Ossining/Greeley
This assumes they will use three by’s and not one, and if so, no matter how TZ, O and Greeley finish up, it looks like HH and Somers are a lock in the first round.
This also assumes that Mamo will be in this bracket, but according to the book they’re in ‘A’. If they’re not it obviously changes everything…Somers would draw Eastchester (as of now) and that winner would play JJ.
Joe….clarification?
Why Rye game changed? Home girls game?
Mamaroneck is B
Conn has a committee decide on seedings, and they almosy always work out. New Jersey uses Laxpower for the seedings because it uses RPI and strength of schedule. Just some info to chew on.
Round robin, those numbers are not correct, so we can throw all of that info out. Indexes for Somers, Brewster, and Greelet were a bit higher then that.
Laxified sloppy play did not mean the demise of the tigers last night. Somers coach’s changing who to dodge on offense. And putting two poles on the face-off as well as playing the Ridgefield middies with two pole were the difference from the 1st qtr on. So for those who have been bashing Coach Lew, and staff. You need to look at the past few games and some of the coaching and realize who you have.
For anyone who wants to see highlights of the John Jay-Ridgefield game they are on the front page of lax.com
Here’s the link:
http://www.lax.com/story.phtml?story=2594
swlax,
Yeah I think there is a girl’s game before.
Tigers Cage, excellent points. You obviously know your stuff.
As for the sectional seedings, unless you have an idea how many teams are going to qualify, it’s really just conjecture at this point. For instance, I was told this afternoon tthat in the Section 1 girls bracket, there are 22 teams that qualified in Class C alone. So it’s really hard to project who will be playing who because one opponents’ win or loss here or there could really have a domino effect.
Regarding HV AA selections, I think it’s a good they will be made June 7, after sectionals and even the first round of states are played. There are plenty of big games between now and then, so I’m going to take all those games into consideration as we all should.
The number for Greeley is correct 1.57
with a potential 1.8 if they beat Rye.
If they lose they stay at 1.57.
If they move to 1.8 they rise to #11 if they lose they stay at #12.
The Brewster number is correct.
2.07 as of now, includes a loss to Hauppauge (NY Sec 11 counts right?)
The caveat with this is that if PV wins their winning percentage goes to .750 (12-4), making wins against them worth more to all who beat them.
Same thing with Tappan Zee, who are 11-4 with the potential to end up 12-4.
Regardless, that will not affect Brewster’s potential total of 2.29.
The Somers number is correct 2.64
Includes St. Anthony’s (NY AAA-AA), Iona Prep (NY AAA-AA) and Niskayuna (NY Sec 2)
Those games all count right?
If they do not count then they rise to 2.9.
Anybody?….
These are all correct.
I would like to say i was at the game last night and #17 not sure who it was played pretty great last night playing one of our best players tight and not letting him create plays congrats! also obviously petre played great and so did erik phiffner with 5 goals. #27 and john bello both played very well
congrats somers you deserved that win
Pleasantville beats Fox Lane 5-4….that locks up the one seed for them in C. Also, puts Fox Lane’s winning percentage below .750, so teams counting on that second bonus point lost out…
Cheshire upsets prep 9 8
Any word on the Put Valley v. Brewster game?
Round Robin…I agree that your numbers look a bit off and I’m guessing that you made an error by not awarding points to teams that play winning teams.
You get 2 points for playing a team that has a .750 or higher winning % regardless of whether you win or lose.
You get 1 point for playing a 500-.749 team regardless if you win or lose.
If you beat those teams you add +4 for the victory as well.
Your rankings are probably pretty close, but not close enough to draw brackets because teams will shift a bit if I’m right.
The seeding system is broken and needs to be thrown out because they are now awarding points for losing. It’s un-American.
If you beat a Ct. team you get zero, but if you lose to a NY team that has a winning record you get points. Ridiculous. There is absolutely no way to justify rewarding teams for failed attempts at victory. This is varsity sports and is supposed to be competitive.
The section must throw this nonsense away and put in a real point system…hell, I saw a better one on this blog just the other day that was submitted by a reader!
PV 13 Brew 5
PV over Brewster 13-5.
St Anthonys trounces Iona Prep 15-4, gotta love the mojo going into the playoffs…………………Time to defend what is still yours………………………….
Rye 8, Horace Greeley 6
Congratulations Wilton! Great win for you guys!!
Quite a few college coaches at the Wilton/Town game tonight including Bill Dwan from Hopkins as well and one of the Towson coaches.