John Jay Boys Lax Season Comes to an End

Coming just short of completing a tantalizing fourth quarter comeback, John Jay's lacrosse team saw its playoff run cut short on Saturday afternoon as the Indians fell to Section 2 Class B champion Niskayuna 7-6 in the opening round of the New York State Championships. The highly anticipated matchup, held at Yorktown High School, pinned the 18-1 Indians, ranked eighth nationally by Inside Lacrosse, against the Silver Warriors of Niskayuna, 15-4 this year and state finalists last season.

It became apparent very early on in Saturday's contest that John Jay would have its hands full with Niskayuna. Playing relentless defense and showing great patience on offense, Niskayuna forced a number of early John Jay turnovers, racing out to a 2-0 lead with fewer than four minutes gone in the first quarter. Junior Jake Weil finally got the Indians on the board midway through the first period, scoring off of an assist from classmate Forrest Walter to cut the Warriors' lead in half.

John Jay grabbed its first and only lead early in the second quarter after junior standout Mike Daniello netted two goals in under two minutes. The Indians' 3-2 advantage was short lived, however, as Niskayuna dominated the rest of the second quarter, scoring three straight goals before the half while holding the ball for the last five minutes of the period.

"They're a good defensive team," John Jay head coach Tim Schurr said. "And then they possess the ball. So when they possess the ball and we're playing a lot of defense, you get the ball on offense and our guys want to rush with it. I just don't think we gave ourselves good opportunities to score."

Niskayuna kept its momentum going into the second half, shutting out John Jay in the third period while stretching the lead to 7-3. John Jay had trouble breaking down Niskayuna's suffocating man-to-man defense all game, which forced the Indian attackers to the edges of the field and swarmed the ball whenever it came near the Warrior goal.

"We knew we were in for a tough challenge today," said Niskayuna head coach Mike Vorgana. "I think they are at their best in transition, so our goal today was to stop their transition and make them play a six-on-six. Our guys did a nice job of that."

Halfway through the final period of the game, despite the Warriors continuing to win an overwhelming majority of faceoffs, John Jay finally found some kind of offensive flow. Junior Jimmy Morris scored John Jay's first goal in over 24 minutes with 7:36 left in the quarter, cutting Niskayuna's advantage to 7-4. The Warriors did their best to keep the ball away from John Jay's offense, even receiving a number of stalling warnings by referees. But sensing their season coming to an end, the Indians continued to scrap and fight, making for a wild ending.

"Our team's has got so much heart," said John Jay junior Mike Daniello, who finished with two goals. "We're like a family. No one wants to lose. That's what it really came down to in the fourth quarter. We saw that clock winding down and we knew we had to get after it."

Goals by Forrest Walter and Jake Weil reduced Niskayuna's lead to just 7-6 with 2:09 left in the game, as John Jay resorted to double-teaming whoever had the ball for the Warriors, creating a handful of scramble situations which played into the Indians' hands.

John Jay had multiple chances of tying the score in the game's closing moments, putting a shot on the Niskayuna goal with a little over 40 seconds remaining, followed by two more in the last 10 seconds of the contest. None of them went in, however, and Niskayuna held on for the victory despite being shut out in the fourth quarter.

Weil ended the game with two goals and a team-high three groundballs for John Jay, while Forrest added one goal and one assist.

Despite the loss, which puts an end to what will surely go down as a memorable season for the Section 2 Class B Champion Indians, Coach Tim Schurr remained positive after the game.

"They're a great group of kids," he said. "I feel badly for them now. I know they're hurting. In a little while they'll reflect on this and hopefully they will have had some fun."