Leading off today: Ward Melville changed the momentum with a pair of goals late in the first half and went on to a 9-8 win over Smithtown East for the
Section 11 boys Class A lacrosse championship Wednesday.
Smithtown East led 5-1 late in the second quarter, but Ward Melville's Liam Davenport rolled out from behind the cage for an unassisted goal and Zach Hobbes took a feed from Eddie Munoz to score with :02.4 left to cut the deficit in half.
"We had to put our seatbelts on, buckle up and crawl back," Munoz told Newsday after the Patriots earned their 25th Suffolk County championship.
Goals from Noah Kepes and Jack Purdy, the latter into an open net with 1:45 to go, broke a 7-7 tie and advanced Ward Melville to the NYSPHSAA quarterfinals Saturday vs. Massapequa.
In other Section 11 finals:
• In Class B, Eastport-South Manor outlasted East Islip 7-5 to win the school's first boys lacrosse championship. Sophomore Ryan Huff's goal in the fourth quarter broke a 5-5 tie.
• Chris Gray had five goals to raise his Long Island-leading total to 86 during Shoreham-Wading River's 13-7 win over Islip in Class C.
Freshman Xavier Arline set up Gray for an open-net goal that broke a four-goal run by Islip that had pulled the Buccaneers within 8-7 early in the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats will face two-time state Class C champion Cold Spring Harbor on Saturday.
Rally falls short: Ithaca nearly pulled off a comeback that would have been talked about in boys lacrosse circles for years to come before finally falling to Baldwinsville 10-9 in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class A quarterfinals.
Down 9-0 coming out of a halftime extended 30 minutes by a lightning delay, the Little Red closed to within 10-9 with 1:48 left before the Bees closed the door.
"Proud as hell of my kids for not folding the tent and coming back and fighting hard," Ithaca coach Frank Welch said. "We just made a lot of dumb mistakes early and Baldwinsville's too good of a team to give them that many chances. I don't know if we've ever been down 9-0 and came back that close, but we've been down before. The kids competed. That's all you can ask for as a coach."
Six players scored for the Bees, including two goals apiece from Austin Bolton, Ryan Gebhardt, Peter Fiorini III and Michael Tangredi. Baldwinsville's only goal in the second half came from Gebhart for a 10-1 lead with 3:43 left in the third quarter.
End of the oh-fer: Vestal had been 0-for-19 against Section 3 opponents in the state lacrosse tournament before Wednesday's Class B quarterfinal.
The misery ended with a 13-9 win over East Syracuse Minoa as Quinn Webster finished with five goals and two assists, and Max Weist netted three goals in the second quarter.
The Golden Bears scored six straight goals in the second quarter to take a 9-2 lead.
"I think the second quarter really killed their momentum," Weist said. "Everything just started to click. We really peaked in that quarter."
More boys lacrosse: Nolan Hogan and Hogan Fox connected five times apiece to power Glens Falls to a 21-10 win over Scotia for the Section 2 Class C championship.
