Yorktown Patch Weekly Sports Report

Boys lacrosse

Yorktown (14-8) saw its season end to Garden City 10-8 in the state Class B semifinals on Wednesday at White Plains High School, but the performance of junior attackman Conor Gately leaves Husker fans looking forward to watching more of him come next spring.

Gately showed why he will be one of the key Huskers next season when he registered three goals and an assist against the highly regarded Trojans.

“He didn’t have the ball taken away from him one time all game and he had the ball the majority of our offensive possessions,” Yorktown coach Dave Marr said.

The elusive Gately, who weaves his way through an opponent’s defense seamlessly like an experienced bicycle messenger in Manhattan’s rush-hour traffic, said the reason he was able to have a big game was because of the unselfishness of his teammates.

“It was my teammates that were the reason for me being successful tonight,” Gately said. “They saw the matchups that I had and they went to me. I fed off them, they were pumped and it helped my game a lot.”

Gately and his teammates came out on fire against the Long Island school with three goals in the first 4:14 of the first quarter, jumping out to a 3-0 advantage. Scoring those goals, all unassisted, were Alex Terry, Gately and Ty Schuldt.

Marr thought being pumped up because of the excitement of playing such a tough squad in a state semifinal was one reason why his squad was able to get off to the start that it did.

“We hadn’t played a competitive game in a couple of weeks,” Marr said. “The kids were focused, ready to go, they came out hard. We were sticking our shots, I think we caught them off guard a little bit. They might have been in-between the Long Island Championship and thinking about going to play Jamesville-DeWitt.”

“We got off to a good start but as you can see as the game went on they, clamped down a little bit, they have a great defense,” Marr continued. “We weren’t expecting to score 20 goals.”

Garden City offset the Huskers’ fast start by scoring four of the next six goals in the opening quarter, including one with just .9 seconds left, to cut the Huskers’ lead to 5-4.

From there, the Trojans outscored the Huskers 6-3 to take the game.

“The difference in the game was a couple of killer turnovers and penalties,” Gately said. “We played a  hard-fought game but unfortunately it had to end.”

Frankie Fusco, two goals, and Brian Quigley, one goal, also got into the scoring column for Yorktown.

Girls lacrosse

Yorktown (17-4) and Lakeland/Panas (16-4-1) both had outstanding seasons, but like the Yorktown boys, both their seasons came to an end in their respective state semifinals on Friday at SUNY-Cortland.

Yorktown saw its season come to a halt with a 15-6 loss against Garden City in the Class B state semifinals. Leading the Huskers was Lindsay Scott, who was named All-American for the second straight year, with three goals.

“There are so many high-caliber players in Section 1 so to be one of the eight named All-Americans named from the section is an honor,” Scott said.

Also scoring for Yorktown were Stefanie Ranagan, with two goals, and Katy Cartelli, with one goal.

Garden City took control of the game in the opening half as it led 11-2 at halftime.

“We were making a lot of mistakes and they were capitalizing on them,” Scott said. “They come from a powerful section (Section 11) where all the teams are strong. So they get good competition all-year round. I think that helped them build their program.”

Northport ended Lakeland/Panas’ postseason run with an 18-5 triumph against the Rebels in the Class A semifinal. Anna Jeszeck, who was named All-American, and Alexa Bonnes shared team-high honors for the Rebels with two goals apiece.

Scoring the Rebels other goal was Melissa Hanson, who was also named All-American and has been best friends with Jeszeck since they were in kindergarten.

“I am proud of her, she deserved it, she worked so hard to be All-American,” Jeszeck said. “It was good to have another teammate earn that honor.”

The Rebels were also done in by being outscored 11-2 at the half in their semifinal contest.

“They were finishing their shots,” Jeszeck said. “The shot selection and the draws were pretty close to even but they finished their shots and their goalie was stopping all of ours.”

Girls track

Lakeland/Panas senior Carissa Leonardi tied for fourth place in the pole vault competition of the New York State girls track and field championships on Friday at Caledonia-Mumford High School in Rochester with a mark of 11-06.

Boys track

Yorktown junior Aidan Fullerton placed 12th in the pentathlon of the New York State boys track and field championships at the same location as the girls on Friday with 1,838 points.

Fullerton’s teammate, senior Carter Humphrey, placed 20th in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:56.49.

For more complete results of the state track championships, visit www.tullyrunners.com.