It rained hard on Wednesday afternoon at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium, and that was just Jamesville-DeWitt’s boys lacrosse team firing shots into the net against East Aurora in the state Class C semifinal.
Sure, plenty of rain fell from the skies, too, but neither that precipitation, nor the Blue Devils’ challenge, could stop the Red Rams from pulling away to prevail 18-4 and advance to the 12th state title game in program history.
Contrasting J-D’s vast experience in state tournaments, this was the first time Section VI champion East Aurora had ever reached the state semifinals, and it didn’t take long for the Blue Devils to fall behind – seven seconds, in fact.
Brendan Coyle, who would win 13 of 15 face-offs in the first half, took that opening draw and began a sequence of two passes and one deflection that ended with Matt Kemmis putting the ball past East Aurora goalie Aidan Sheehan.
Kemmis was just getting started, scoring again at the 45-second mark, and twice more late in the first quarter before Will Davis converted in the final seconds to make it 5-0.
Not until the 2:37 mark of the second period did the Blue Devils get on the board with Cal Klube’s goal. By then, Davis had scored again, and the Rams countered this initial East Aurora tally with another 6-0 run.
Davis and Matt Kemmis struck again, but Pat Murad, Tanner Burns, Connor Durkin and Nick Kemmis found the net, too, so the margin was 12-1 at halftime.
During the third period, Matt Kemmis put in a sixth goal, ultimately adding an assist to share the same point total as Davis, who had four goals and three assists, and Durkin, who got two goals and five assists. Nick Kemmis added a second goal, with Parker Cote and Alex Sanville also converting.
To earn the program’s sixth state championship and first since 2016, J-D will need to defeat Long Island’s Shoreham-Wading River in Saturday’s state Class C final at 3 p.m. at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford. SWR beat Rye 13-6 in the other state semifinal and are seeking its fourth state title, and first since 2012.
