With five state championships already on its crowded ledger, the Jamesville-DeWitt boys lacrosse team was in pursuit of a sixth crown, only to get denied one victory short of that ultimate prize.
Shoreham-Wading River, another Long Island-based powerhouse, defeated the Red Rams 12-7 in last Saturday’s state Class C title game at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, roaring out to an eight-goal lead before J-D could settle into the game it wanted.
Up until the final, the state tournament had provided no stress for J-D – easy regional wins over St. Lawrence (15-2) and Owego (17-3), followed by an 18-4 romp in the rain over East Aurora in last Wednesday’s state semifinal at Cicero-North Syracuse’s Bragman Stadium.
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.
And this brought J-D to the state final, but now it wasn’t facing a newcomer.
Shoreham-Wading River had three state titles of its own to claim, the last in 2012, and the Wildcats displayed none of the nerves or fear that the Rams’ three previous post-season opponents displayed.
Looking back, J-D could never recover from the way the game started. It went nearly seven minutes before even taking a shot, which resulted in a goal by Tyler Brang, but by then SWR already had a 3-0 lead.
Xavier Arline, the Wildcats’ top talent, got it going 2:07 into the game, and Johnny Schwarz followed with a goal less than a minute later. Then Arline converted again and, after Brang’s goal, SWR defender Tyler Schwarz made a long run to the net and beat Jamison MacLachlan.
That left the Rams trailing 4-1 going to the second period, which equaled the first in that J-D only converted once and the Wildcats again found the net four times, Arline adding a third and fourth goals, one of them on a one-handed shot.
It got worse from there, Schwarz and Gavin Gregorek connecting on goals early in the third quarter that left J-D in a 10-2 deficit, but to its credit, the Rams almost made it interesting.
By increasing defensive pressure and forcing turnovers, J-D scored three times in a span of 2:10, one each by Burns, Davis and Nick Kemmis, but with just 9.3 seconds left in the quarter Dominic Visintin’s goal restored SWR’s margin to 11-5.
Arline’s fifth goal, to go with two assists, helped the Wildcats seal it late, though the Rams did see Brang and Durkin find the net before the clock ran out.
Tough as this defeat was to take, J-D could have quite a group back in 2020. Of the starters, only Murad and defender Seth Sahil graduate, with Burns, Coyle, Davis, Durkin, MacLachlan, Josh Duby and both Kemmis brothers among the returning players.
