Granby Memorial Boys Lax Makes Statement with Victory over Somers

The boys lacrosse team served notice to the rest of the teams in the NCCC that it intends to contend for conference title this season with a 5-4 victory over previously undefeated Somers High on Tuesday afternoon.

“It was just a superb, superb, superb effort,” Granby Memorial head coach Dave Emery said. “It’s very hard to play that well. With the exception of a couple of penalties, I thought we played beautifully. We had a game plan where we thought we had more depth particularly in the midfield we just wanted to run numbers at them. … They’re a fine team and they’re disciplined. We executed beautifully.”

Jesse Freedman was the hero on offense for the Bears, scoring four goals from four different angles, while Zach Brown scored as well to help lift Granby Memorial to a 7-1 record on the year.

Sean Tynan led Somers with two goals and an assist, while Tyler Russell had a goal and two assists and Eddie Hill had a goal as the Spartans fell to 6-1.

While the goal scorers tend to get much of the recognition in lacrosse, it was the teams’ defenses, particularly the goalies - Granby Memorial’s Nick Burgio (10 saves) and Somers’ Pat Tynan (21 saves) - that really took center stage.

“When we’re playing six on six - a settled defense - we just don’t give up many goals,” Emery said. “Nick Burgio, he’s just tremendous. The players play harder because of him because they love him. He’s the kind of person you want as a teammate. He’s extraordinarily tough. He never misses a practice. He never misses a game. He just wants to play.”

Granby Memorial defender Ethan Lang also had a stellar game.

Somers head coach Ken McCarthy credited Pat Tynan’s play as the reason for why his team remained in the game despite committing some uncharacteristic turnovers.

“We haven’t been doing that all year. It just seemed to surface today at the worst time that we threw the ball away,” McCarthy said. “I was proud of the effort. We put ourselves in a position to be in it in the end.”

The loss was Somers’ first in the regular season since it fell to Windsor in May 2010. Last year the Spartans went undefeated in the regular season and advanced to the state Class S semifinals before losing to St. Joseph’s.

Despite a rocky start, the Spartans took a 2-0 lead in the second quarter when Tynan sniped two goals from the left and right side.

Instead of wilting, Granby Memorial struck back when Brown opened the Bears account with 6:55 left in the half. Freedman followed with two goals to give Granby Memorial a 3-2 lead at the 2:48 mark in the second quarter.

Brown appeared to put the Bears up by two goals with when his shot rattled around the cage and appeared to find the netting before bounding out. The referee, however, disagreed and play continued.

The Spartans took advantage of their good fortune, as Russell leveled with a goal while a man up with 47 seconds left in the half.

Somers once again took the lead four minutes into the third quarter on Hill’s goal, before Freedman answered again, this time on a bounce shot that eluded goalie Pat Tynan.

“[Freedman] is a tremendous player,” Emery said. “It’s been a real joy to have him on our team.”

The game remained tied until midway through the fourth period, when Freedman got his fourth goal with 6:01 left in the game. Granby Memorial made slim lead hold up, and its bench emptied in celebration.

“We’ve got a ways to go,” Emery said in terms of his team’s contention for the NCCC crown. “This is the halfway point of the season. We’re eight games in. But we really needed to make a statement. How far have we come and today, the answer was we’ve come a long way since the beginning of the season.”

As for Somers, McCarthy hopes that the loss will serve as a wake up call for his players.

“We need to learn a lesson that we need to come to play every day,” McCarthy said. “Everybody wants to beat Somers and we need to have a good game every game, because everybody wants to play their best game against us. We just can’t have a let down.”

The season continues for both teams later this week, as Somers hosts Canton on Thursday, while Granby travels to Ellington on Friday.