Since claiming its last state Class B title in 2011, the Jamesville-DeWitt boys lacrosse team has, in each of the ensuing four seasons, come close to adding another crown, but have not quite pulled it off.
Another near-miss came this season, when the Red Rams reached the state Class B semifinal, only to run into undefeated, state no. 1-ranked Victor Wednesday night at St. John Fisher College in suburban Rochester and take an 11-9 defeat to the Blue Devils.
It was an historic night for Victor, the Section V champions, who advanced to the state final for the first time in program history. In doing so, the Blue Devils avenged last year’s state semifinal, where J-D outscored them 16-12 on the way to a title-game defeat to Yorktown.
As the lone remaining undefeated (20-0) team in the state, Victor rarely had trailed in any of its previous games this spring. J-D had its fair share of one-sided wins, too, but all of that previous experience, plus the battles it had with the likes of West Genesee and Cazenovia, gave it a reason to think it could win if the game was close here, too.
Energized by some big early stops from goalie Joe Morgan, J-D provided that test right away. Ryan Durkin put his team on the board 3:05 into the first quarter. Less than four minutes later, Ryan Archer made it 2-0 off a feed from Casey Platenik.
But that two-goal margin lasted all of 26 seconds before Dan Barrow put Victor on the board. Settling down, the Blue Devils stopped J-D on a man-up situation, and then, with just 1.5 seconds left in the first quarter, Ryan Maloney found the net on a rebound goal, tying it, 2-2.
Ben Wipper briefly put J-D back in front early in the second period, but the Blue Devils countered with a 3-0 run thanks to goals by Barrow, Alec DeCarlo and Mike DeMarco. Then the Rams scored twice in a 17-second span, Durkin scoring before Sam Mueller, sore shoulder and all, hit on a rare goal to tie it, 5-5.
J-D’s problem was that Mueller, who handled face-offs before separating his shoulder in the Section III final against Carthage one week earlier, could not help in the draws, and Victor’s T.D. Ierlan was grabbing most of them against the Rams’ Jack Mulvihill.
Those extra possessions would take a toll on J-D’s defense. Morgan made seven first-half saves, but goals by Barrow and Max Lambert 15 seconds apart late in the half pushed Victor back in front, 7-5, where it stood at the break.
For the Rams, the second half turned into a chase. Seeing the deficit grow to 8-5 on Maloney’s goal early in the third period, J-D twice moved back within two on goals from Archer, only to see the Blue Devils quickly answer with tallies from Maloney and DeMarco.
Still down, 10-7, going to the fourth quarter, the Rams continued to struggle with face-offs, allowing Victor to burn off long stretches of the clock.
Griffin Cook found the net with 8:20 to play, but after another Blue Devils win in the center circle, another chunk of time was used before Drew Collins found the net with 4:59 to play.
Now trailing 11-8, J-D took more chances, and did force a couple of late turnovers. But all it could manage was Cook’s second goal with 2:47 left, as a man-up chance in the final minute was thwarted thanks to a save by Victor’s freshman goalie, Chayse Ierlan.
J-D ended its season with an 18-2 mark. Morgan, Durkin, Wipper, Alex Dieroff, Jacob Eich, Lucas Relkin and Matt Murad are among the graduating seniors, but Archer, Cook, Mueller, Mulvihill, Platenik, Grayson Burns, Charlie Digristina and Andrew Barclay lead a large and talented returning cast that, in 2016, intends to push again toward the state title, and perhaps go all the way.
