Round 1 goes to the Shenendehowa boys lacrosse team.
Max McAuliffe scored the go-ahead goal with 13 seconds left in the fourth quarter to lift the Plainsmen past Niskayuna 6-5 in Tuesday’s showdown of Suburban Council North Division co-leaders.
It was a nice win, said Shen coach Chuck Holohan. `It was nice to come here and play a quality game against a quality opponent and sneak out of here with a win.`
`They’re a good team, they are the defending Section II Class A champions and it is what it is,` said Niskayuna coach Mike Vorgang.
Niskayuna (5-1 league, 7-1 overall) had a chance to take the lead late in the fourth quarter, but Shen goaltender Bobby Wardwell stopped a long shot from Tanner MacIvor with 37 seconds left. Shen’s defense cleared the ball to midfield, and Holohan called a timeout with 28 seconds left to set up the offense.
Vorgang said he felt the shot came too soon.
`I wanted to end the [fourth] quarter with the ball because we would have gone to overtime, if nothing else,` said Vorgang. `The lesson there is follow the plan. We don’t want a 17-foot shot on Bobby [Wardwell].`
On the restart, Shen (6-0, 7-1) worked the ball around to McAuliffe, who got free in front of the Niskayuna goal. The senior attacker took a quick shot that sped past Niskayuna goaltender Evan Quinn’s head into the net to put the Plainsmen ahead for good.
`I thought we were passing the ball well all day,` said Holohan. `When you’re playing a great defensive team like Niskayuna, you’re not going to get a lot of points. So, you have to be patient.`
`They made a great play, but it all starts with us making a poor defensive play,` said Vorgang. `But that’s lacrosse. That’s a great lacrosse play for them.`
Both goaltenders played well. Wardwell made 13 saves for Shen, while Quinn ` a sophomore playing his first year of varsity lacrosse ` stopped 10 shots for Niskayuna.
`This Quinn kid [is] a fantastic goalie,` said Holohan. `He’s now on everybody’s radar in Section II as a fantastic goalie.`
Niskayuna scored the first three goals of the game. MacIvor sent a blistering shot past Wardwell four minutes into the first quarter to put the Silver Warriors on the scoreboard. Lucas Maloney then stuffed a shot past Wardwell off a Matt Sexton pass with 5:43 left in the opening period to make the score 2-0. Sexton finished the run with a goal 43 seconds into the second quarter.
`I started out kind of slow, and the whole team thought that we started out kind of slow,` said Wardwell, a Syracuse-bound senior.
The Plainsmen finished the first half with a 3-0 run of their own. Brian Powell tallied twice, and Mike Jenkins added a goal to help Shen tie the game at 3.
The third quarter started out as a goaltender battle with Quinn and Wardwell making key saves to keep the game tied. Shen pulled ahead with 3:17 left in the period when Joe Gaug scored off a feed from Jenkins, but Sexton ripped a long shot past Wardwell with 14.2 seconds left to knot the score at 4.
Niskayuna grabbed a 5-4 lead early in the fourth quarter on a fortuitous bounce. Wardwell appeared to stop Maloney’s shot, but the ball bounced out of Wardwell’s stick and landed over the goal line.
It didn’t take Shen long to pull even again, though. Jenkins took the ball behind the Niskayuna cage, sprinted around to the side and fired a low shot past Quinn 2:34 after Maloney’s goal to tie the game at 5.
Quinn and Wardwell each had key saves over the next six minutes to keep the score tied before McAuliffe struck for the game winner.“
