Jordan Evans completed a striking move upfield move with a diving goal to give the Jamesville-DeWitt boys lacrosse team an 8-7 overtime win against Garden City late Saturday afternoon in the state Class B championship game at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadiium.
Evans goal landed in the Trojans net with just 2.4 seconds left in the first overtime, which clinched back-to-back state titles for the Red Rams, earned by winning 44 consecutive games, perhaps none as hard-fought as this one.
“The second the crowd cheered I knew it was in,” Evans said. His view was obscured after diving around Garden City goalie Dan Marino and landing with his face down on the CNS turf.
“Then I got trampled on,” Evans said, proudly describing the moment where all of J-D’s players piled on top of him, exuberant over surviving the long, tough battle with a Garden City foe bent on avenging last year’s state finals defeat at Stony Brook.
That Evans was able to put the finishing touch on J-D’s second successive 22-0 campaign was down to the imagination of a pair players using long sticks.
First up was Scott Firman. The sophomore defender, who had just withstood a long Garden City possession that covered most of the OT period, intercepted a Trojans pass about 15 yards from midfield. Firman delivered an inch- perfect pass to fellow defender Matt Kopp. Seeing this, Evans worked to get open and receive the kind of pass he expects from Kopp.
“Matt always looks for me on that one,” Evans said.
The sophomore attacker’s biggest goal of his career put a cap on a tense encounter. The Red Rams never trailed but never could pull away. It was 2-2 after one quarter, 6-4 J-D at intermission, and 7-6 Red Rams after three.
Garden City’s impressive senior attacker, Pat Berkery, pulled his side into a 7-7 deadlock early in the fourth quarter and it soon set up a game of lacrosse-chess.
The Trojans got control of the following faceoff and proceeded to play keep away in the Red Rams defensive end for more than five minutes. The ploy ultimately didn’t work. J-D goalie Dan DiStefano along with his defenders and midfielders – Kopp, Davi Sacco, Nick Firman, Scott Firman and Mike Perkins – held tough never really allowing Garden City a quality chance.
“Once (Garden City) tied it up they were able to do that,” Red Rams coach Jamie Archer said. “They pretty much took the air out of the ball. Our kids stayed patient and didn’t overextend.”
Overtime played out like the fourth quarter, with lots of Garden City possession and a matching amount of J-D patience, even after it turned the ball over in a man-up situation.
“It got to the point where we were able to make that last play,” Archer said.
Archer credits his side’s resolve as a big reason why the Red Rams are now two-time state champions.
“This team doesn’t believe it can lose, and it showed in the last seconds,” he said. “They kept making enough plays to get the winning goal. That Garden City team is tough and out kids showed a lot of character to pull it out.”
Trojans coach Steve Finnell said the fourth-quarter slowdown was done for two purposes.
“(J-D) is outstanding in transition and we felt maybe if we (create more chances) in a six-on-six game,” Finnell said. “We got some looks at the cage but their goalie (DiStefano) is outstanding.”
DiStefano finished with eight saves. Evans, Tim Edwards and Deke Burns led the winners with two goals each. McClaren Brady and Jeff Edwards had single tallies.
Archer wasn’t given much time to celebrate when talk of the 2012 campaign was brought up. Evans returning is a good thing but the Red Rams will lose a lot of quality come 2011 graduation day.
“We had a lot of good strong leadership with this group,” Archer said. “But we’ve got some good young kids coming through.”
