One quarter of action may have alarmed fans of the Jamesville-DeWitt boys lacrosse team during Wednesday’s Section III Class B final at the Carrier Dome – but by the time the second quarter was done, all concerns were addressed, and a seventh consecutive sectional championship was in sight.
In those pivotal 12 minutes, the state no. 3-ranked Red Rams ripped off six consecutive goals, erasing no. 3 seed Carthage’s early advantage, and went from there to withstand a strong, tenacious effort from the Comets and prevail by a score of 16-12.
The problem early was twofold. J-D had plenty of scoring chances in the first quarter, but sent shots wide and turned it over, despite goals from Grayson Burns, Griffin Cook and Ben Wipper.
Meanwhile, Rams goalie Joe Morgan had a problem with bounce shots from Carthage’s attackers, allowing three of them in the net, two of them by Josh Yelvington. And when Alex Mack scored with 1:03 left in the period, the Comets inched in front, 4-3.
All of this, said J-D head coach Jamie Archer, was a result of getting used to the big stage.
“The mistakes we made were nervous mistakes,” he said. “You never know how kids will handle it.”
Then J-D caught a break at the end of the first quarter. Staying aggressive, the Comets commmitted a penalty, giving the Rams a man-up advantage to start the second period.
It took all of 13 seconds for Burns to convert that man-up. Less than two minutes later, Cook put in the go-ahead goal, but J-D was just getting started.
Wipper’s second goal made it 6-4, and midway through the period Ryan Archer scored on a pretty play, faking out both his defender and Carthage goalie Tristan Hancock before slipping the ball past Hancock.
In a 52-second span late in the period, Anthony DiGiovanni and Ryan Durkin joined in with goals of their own. During that 6-0 run, six different J-D players found the net, and Sam Mueller set up all of those situations by winning every face-off he took.
Midway through the third quarter, with the score 10-5, Mueller, who’s also a defensive standout, suffered an injury to his left shoulder and left the game with his arm in a sling.
Matt Murad replaced Mueller and won his first two face-offs, but Carthage still fought back and pulled within four, 11-7, going to the fourth quarter. Archer said he fully expected the Comets to hang in there.
“There’s no quit in that team,” he said.
J-D got some room to breathe early in the fourth quarter, seeing defender Jacob Eich get a rare goal amid a two-minute stretch where Cook, completing his hat trick, and Andrew Barclay also scored.
That, along with goals from Murad and Burns, gave the Rams a cushion against the Comets’ late surge, which included three more goals from Mack, giving him five for the game.
Now it’s back to the state tournament for J-D, who meets Section IV champion Vestal in Saturday’s regional final at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium. Archer said that, to get the program’s first state title since 2011, a lot will have to improve.
“We have to take care of the ball, and we need to have more confidence,” said Archer.
