HEMPSTEAD – Aiming for a sixth state championship in program history and first since 2016, the Jamesville-DeWitt boys lacrosse team was stopped by the side that won it a year ago.
Echoing what Baldwinsville accomplished in Class A and Garden City did in Class B, Manhasset repeated as state champions, stopping the Red Rams 14-5 in Sunday’s Class C title game at Hofstra University on Long Island.
Displaying quality depth in its attack, Manhasset had seven different players score in the first half, establishing a comfortable margin that J-D would spend the rest of the afternoon trying to overcome.
In many ways, what happened in the opening minutes decided matters as Manhasset got consecutive goals from Cal Girard, James Lapina and Michael Mondello to quickly establish a 3-0 advantage.
And even when J-D got on the board with Sam Brazell’s goal, Manhasset countered, Jack Lamarca finding the net to leave the Rams trailing 4-1 going into the seconds.
Manhasset continued to spread it around the rest of the half. Three more players – Matt Cargiulo, Jack Petersen and Liam Connor- converted, all surrounding a single tally by Graham Kesserling for J-D.
Trailing 7-2 at the break, the Rams needed a quick start to the third quarter. Instead, Mondello hit on back-to-back goals, completing his hat trick, and after Mario Streiff converted, the reigning champions put it away with yet another three-goal spurt.
Mondiello hit on his fourth goal, but Aidan Haggerty and Dan Kolin became the eighth and ninth different Manhasset players to get in the scoring column, depth that overwhelmed all of J-D’s attempts to contain it.
Streiff would tack on a second goal in the game’s late stages as Jonah Buff also found the net. Lucas Patchen got a pair of assists and Andrew Laubenstein also had an assist. Busy all game long, goalie Ian McIntyre recorded 17 saves as J-D’s season concluded with a 16-5 record.
