Leading off today: Matt Gavin fired home the winning goal with 28.9 seconds left to give Manhasset a come-from-behind, 7-6 victory over Mount Sinai on Saturday in the NYSPHSAA boys lacrosse Class B quarterfinals.
Manhasset's Tyler Dunn (two goals, two assists and 16-for-17 on faceoffs) tied the game with 4:02 remaining as Manhasset fought back from a 6-3 deficit through three quarters. Gavin took a feed from Kyle Cherry to set up the winning shot, his third goal of the game.
"The double-team came quick, so we kept moving the ball," Gavin told Newsday. "I found myself open and I just shot it."
The victory gave the Indians their first Long Island championship since 2010, when they went on to capture the NYSPHSAA Class C championship. Manhasset's opponent in Wednesday's New York State Public High School Athletic Association semifinals will be defending champion Yorktown, a 21-9 winner over Albany Academy.
"It's not as easy this time because we didn't have the same kind of schedule as we did last year," senior midfielder Michael Dedvukaj told The Journal News. "We've been going easy, easy, easy to hard. It showed against teams like Ward Melville and Chaminade, we either didn't start well or we only played one half.
Now we have to come out and go 48 minutes all out. We'll play our game and hope for the best."
And then there was one: Class B Victor is the state's last remaining unbeaten team in boys lacrosse.
The Blue Devils swarmed all over Hamburg in the first half and coasted to a 20-9 victory in their quarterfinal. T.D. Ierlan won the game's first 14 faceoffs to help stake Victor to a 17-3 halftime lead and set up a semifinal against Jamesville-DeWitt, which defeated Vestal on Sunday.
"I'd be real surprised if they lost the rest of the year," Hamburg coach Jerry Severino told the Democrat and Chronicle. "I've seen a lot of lacrosse; I've never seen a team as good as this, and we've played J-D a couple times."
Drew Collins and Jamie Trimboli scored four goals apiece in the win.
Potentially costly win: Pittsford fought its way past Orchard Park 16-12 in Class A despite losing faceoff middie Zac Cooley and goalie Kevin Maguire to injuries before halftime. Maguire aggravated a hamstring injury and Cooley had to be helped off the field with a leg injury.
"Definitely losing Kevin and Cooley, they're two of our biggest players, so kids had to step up," said senior midfielder James Felix.
Junior attackman Jonathan Perotto, Pittsford's leading scorer this season, scored six goals.
"It's tough when our guys are looking back and seeing their teammates on the bench," Panthers coach Andrew Whipple said. "Those are guys we counted on all year, but we gutted it out and it says a lot about our team."
Pittsford's semifinal opponent will be West Genesee, a 17-3 winner vs. Corning. The Wildcats raced to a 5-0 lead before enduring a nearly hour-long weather delay.
Close call: In one of the day's rare close calls, Niskayuna defeated Mamaroneck 16-13. Senior John Prendergast's fourth goal with 5:28 left was the final goal for Niskayuna, then it was left to Villanova recruit Nick Testa to preserve the lead with some big stops in goal.
Testa made just 11 saves, but among them were stops on Eric Greenberg and Alex Ewald while Niskayuna was trying to preserve its three-goal margin.
"Their goalie stood on his head at the end. Props to him," Mamaroneck All-America Reed Malas, who had three goals and an assist, told The Journal News.
Shut down: Akron averaged 24 goals a game during the season and rang up 30 in the Section 6 Class C final, attracting a lot of attention this spring including a story in USA Today.
"We talked about that," Penn Yan coach Brian Hobart told the Democrat and Chronicle. "We see scores, 25, 28, 30 goals, and our kids were like, 'OK,' and they came in today believing if we had to score 17-18 goals to win the game, we could."
