Friday, May 22, 2015: Canisius wins title in fourth overtime

   Leading off today: Junior Reid Martin scored with 44.1 seconds left in the fourth overtime Thursday, carrying Canisius to a 7-6 win over Nichols for the Monsignor Martin Association boys lacrosse championship.

   "Honestly, I just saw I had an opening, so I took the shot,” Martin, who missed six games with a broken hand this spring, told The Buffalo News. "I had a lot of opportunities in the overtime. It was frustrating. I had to finish one for my team. ... Everyone kept telling me I would put it in the back of the net sooner or later. It was really exciting."

   Nichols thought it had the game won with 2:55 left in the third overtime period only to have the goal called back because of a crease violation. Before the Vikings realized the goal was waved off by the officials, they had rushed the field to start celebrating what they thought was their first playoff title since 2005.

   Canisius advances to the New York State Catholic High School Athletic Association championship game in Uniondale next weekend.

   More boys lacrosse: Eric Greenberg scored 17 seconds into OT for his sixth goal of the contest to carry Mamaroneck past Mahopac 12-11 for the Section 1 Class A championship.

   Greenberg came running onto the field after Reed Malas secured a ground ball on the faceoff, collected the quick pass and ran into open field.

   "I saw a lot of green, and I like my right more than my left, I think most people know that, so I ran as fast as I could to the right and tried to create offense," Greenberg told The Journal News. "Once I released it, it looked good. I stared it down, saw it went in the net and just started running."

   Girls lacrosse: With four seconds left, Gabby Rosenzweig was ready for a chance to break a 9-9 tie with a free-position chance from the right side. And that's all she needed.

   Rosenzweig fired past Yorktown goalie Nikki Prestiano as time expired to give Somers a 10-9, come-from-behind win over Yorktown in the Section 1 Class B final.

   Yorktown is ranked fourth and Somers fifth in the most recent state Class B ratings.

   "The adrenaline really kicked in, and my sister looked at me and said, 'Gabby, you are burying this shot," Rosenzweig told The Journal News. "It motivated me; I looked around at my teammates, I just wanted to do it for them."

   Continuity: Will Hayes, an assistant coach during the run to the NYSPHSAA Class B championship last year and a Mattituck graduate, has been named the Tuckers' new boys soccer coach.

Get all the N.Y. boys lacrosse info

   The Mattituck school board approved the choice at its meeting Thursday. Mat Litchhult stepped down after guiding he Tuckers to their third state championship last November.

   Hayes will be only the seventh coach in the 78-year history of the program.

   "Mattituck's success goes hand-in-hand with its ability to keep a coach for more than five years," Hayes told The Suffolk Times. "You don't recruit anyone in the high school game. You've got to build a pipeline of talent. You have to manage them and you have to work then through the system, whatever system you try to do, you try to play."

   The Hayes family tradition in Mattituck soccer includes seven siblings having played for the boys or girls teams. Most recently, Will Hayes' twin brothers, Paul and James, helped Mattituck to the state championship. Their father Bill is president of the Mattituck Soccer Club and has coached several youth teams over the years.

   Brackets progress: With first-round games coming up next week, I've built out brackets for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association boys and girls lacrosse tournaments. Links can be found on our brackets home page.

   I'll get to work on the baseball and softball brackets over the weekend and start plugging teams in as they qualify for the respective tourneys.