Over the last few years, Mamaroneck’s lacrosse program has established itself as one of the flagships of Section I, and the Tigers entered 2016 looking to defend their Section I crown. Unfortunately for Mamaroneck, those hopes were dashed on May 25, when a last-second goal by Lakeland/Panas downed the reigning champs in the Class A finals at White Plains High School.
With 6.2 seconds to play, Lakeland attacker Gary Shiland collected a rebound and buried a shot to give his team an 11-10 win and send the Tigers home disappointed. The game-winning goal came just 22 seconds after Mamaroneck’s Emmett Fay netted his fourth goal of the game to tie the score at 10 and give the Tigers a shot to send the game into overtime.
But Lakeland’s Nick Vasquez won the faceoff, sending the ball back down to the other end, leading to the wild finish.
According to Mamaroneck coach Jeff Barnard, Vasquez’s work on faceoffs—he won 15 on the night—was the difference-maker in a game that saw the Rebels dominate the time of possession.
“What really killed us was the faceoffs and the possessions,” he said. “[Vasquez] is an outstanding faceoff kid, they did a tremendous job in the groundball war and I think if we won even 50 percent of those, we would have won the game.”
Barnard noted that the Rebels, despite controlling the pace for much of the game, were unable to stop Mamaroneck on the defensive end. In addition to Fay’s four goals, Alex Ewald scored three times, and senior standout Eric Greenberg found the net twice despite being hounded by Shiland, who drew the unenviable task of shadowing the All-American.
“Without possessing the ball a lot, we still scored 10 goals,” Barnard said. “They had a hard time defending us.”
Despite falling short of their goal to repeat as Class A champs, the Tigers showed great resilience this season, the head coach added. After a tough start that saw Mamaroneck win just two of its first five games, the Tigers began to click and won their last six regular season games before the playoffs and finished the year with a 13-5 record. According to Barnard, the turnaround was largely due to the team’s maturity and unselfishness.
“We made a lot of changes over the course of the season, changing where kids were playing, changing our plays,” he said. “And I think a good team is always open to changing things up for the success of the team.”
Mamaroneck will lose a number of starters to graduation, but should bring back enough talent in 2017 to once again make waves within Class A. Players like Emmett Fay and goalie Jack Dente, who was stellar in his second year in net for the Tigers, should help Mamaroneck continue its assent.
“Emmett put up some big numbers for us, and Jack is getting better all the time in net,” Barnard said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys ready to step up into starting roles next year.”
